Orkney Rape Crisis: Advocacy, Prevention, Support and Campaigning

By theorkneynews on March 10, 2018

Discretely tucked away at 4 Gunns Close, Kirkwall is Orkney Rape Crisis. The welcoming environment is staffed by 3 part-time support workers.

Orkney Rape Crisis has been running an open door event from 8th – 10th March 10am – 3pm so that you can call by and become more aware of the work they do.

The premises are laid out in 4 rooms each one labelled with the areas that the organisation covers: Advocacy, Prevention, Support and Campaigning. The ORC will offer support and help to any gender of 13+ years and to non-abusive families and friends. They will also provide information and advice to professionals .

One of the most important aspects of the work currently being done by ORC in this the Year of Young People is within secondary schools and youth organisations. They provide assistance in running the ‘Rape Crisis National Prevention Programme’: age appropriate educational workshops.

The programme is divided into 7 topics:

How can we help prevent sexual violence?
Gender
Consent
What is sexual violence?
Sexualisation and pornography
Impacts and support
Social Media

Feedback from young people is very positive with 93% agreeing they should have access to the educational workshops.

Orkney Rape Crisis provides a confidential service which means any information that is shared with them will not go any further without consent. The only exception to this is with child protection concerns, for example where a child might be at imminent risk of harm.

The organisation also provides support:

accompanying you to appointments and court
helping you to know what is involved in reporting to the police
providing support immediately following rape or sexual assault
providing support to cope with sexual assault or rape which happened in the past.