Insights from a courageous voice at the Gloucestershire Sexual Abuse Centre

Founded in 1984, Gloucestershire Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (also known as GRASAC) has supported people who have experienced sexual violence and in 2014, they became a registered charity.

According to The Forester, Home Office data shows that there were over 9000 domestic abuse related crimes recorded in

Gloucestershire last year, which is a 2000

(Image of Gloucester Crown Court)

increase from the year before. As well as this, there is a huge backlog in crown court when it comes to rape and sexual violence trials.

Rachel, a dedicated and compassionate worker at GRASAC, said: "I was in court last week with a victim where it's been 5 years since she was raped. She reported it on the night in happened, and we were only in court last week."

GRASAC offer two fundamental services, the Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (or ISVA) Service for people of all ages and all genders and the Specialist Support Worker Service which is for anyone aged 13+.

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"We also do outreach work such as speaking to schools and colleges in hopes of general awareness raising."

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The Cheltenham Festival is huge in popularity here, with over 200,000 people attending to watch the world-class horse racing. However as Daily Mail states, women feel very unsafe during these annual races and claim it has "become a no-go zone." On this topic, Rachel stated: "We have delivered some training to clubs and bars around the county, and we have spoken to the racecourse and all of their hospitality and security team who had a training back in November."

The Gloucestershire-based centre are a part of the rape crisis network which was founded in around the 1970’s and 80’s and, as Rachel said, they recognise that although women and girls are the majority of victims, they do see the huge impact that sexual violence has on men, boys and other genders. “Ultimately, often people are assaulted by their friend or their partner and the impact on their children or just on them is huge. It can tear families apart when someone has reported.”

Rachel explained that the criminal justice system can have a detrimental effect on people’s health which may be why some victims choose not to report issues like these. “The police advocate that if someone is mentally unwell at the point of their assault they should consider waiting.”

People are also afraid, whether it’s because they believe there is not enough evidence or because they may think the police will not help them.

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"We are not here to question someone's account or ask if they are telling the truth. We support the victim and help advocate for them."

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When asked about her own job and how it may affect her own personal life, Rachel said: “There are days when I go home and think to myself how the world is not a nice place. But we have clinical supervision once a month where you can cover anything even if it’s personal or work related.”