Sheffield Rape & Sexual Abuse Centre

Sheffield Rape & Sexual Abuse Centre (SRASAC) is specialist, women only service which offers free confidential support to woman and girls.

First established in 1980, the service has been providing a telephone support line, free and confidential counselling sessions and helping direct male survivors to services that can support them. The centre has also recently begun pre and post counselling group work sessions.

Since it began the service has evolved from just a few women offering telephone support to become a large and much more robust organisation, with 15 fully qualified counsellors and in house trained volunteers to operate the telephone line. Recent funding of £1,455 from the Hugh & Ruby Sykes Distribution Fund has helped cover the cost of the telephone support service and the free counselling support the centre provides.

The funding means that we can keep on going. We’re the only Sheffield based, women specific group and we’ve never received funding towards telecom costs before. It currently costs £1 per hour to operate the helpline and we receive on average 1000 calls per year.

It has been of great help, and the need for it is growing. Events often act as triggers, which bring back memories and negative feelings. Recent events in South Yorkshire such as the Rotherham CSE abuse scandal result in more and more calls being received.

We know there is a huge need out there. We’d like to offer a free phone number and extend our provision to be able to offer a confidential email and text service. It would be great if we could also extend our services to girls under the age of 13

Meera Kulkarni, Centre Manager,