About Us
West Mercia Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre (WMRSASC) is a specialist sexual violence support service working across Worcestershire and Herefordshire.
We provide free, confidential and non-judgemental services to women, men and children (aged 5+) who have experienced any form of rape, sexual violence, abuse, harassment or exploitation at any time in their lives.
We are committed to raising awareness about the damaging effects rape and sexual abuse can have on an individual’s life and provide a range of holistic services including:
Advocacy, Assessment and Intervention Services, Education, Group support, Therapeutic Support and Training
We are an independent registered charity (established 1986) and company limited by guarantee.
(Charity Number 1136677 and Company number 07083844)
We are an organisational member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists and The National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society. We are members of Rape Crisis England and Wales and The Survivors Trust.
Our services are accredited by Rape Crisis (E&W) National Service Standards (NSS). These standards provide a robust quality assurance framework that enables specialist Rape Crisis centres to demonstrate how their services prioritise safety, strong leadership and governance, empowerment and continuous improvement.
History
West Mercia Rape & Sexual Abuse Support Centre (WMRSASC) was established within Worcestershire in 1986 as a telephone support service for women only. Services expanded gradually to include counselling support and the launch of the first Independent Sexual Violence Advocate (ISVA) within the West Mercia Police area in 2007. 2011 saw the expansion into Herefordshire with support from the Ministry of Justice’s New and Emerging Centre Initiative. In 2013, we were able to extend our advocacy services to men, children and young people (aged 11+), with the counselling service being extended in 2015.
In 2016, both the counselling and advocacy services began supporting children from the age 5 years, in 2019 services were established in Shropshire and in 2020 Purple Leaf (our early intervention and prevention arm) started assessing and working with children who had exhibited problematic/harmful sexual behaviours.
We have, and are continuing, to develop specialist roles including culturally responsive advocates (people from ethnic minority backgrounds), sexual orientation & gender identity (LGBTQIA+), additional needs and support for adults experiencing or at risk of sexual exploitation.
2023 saw the launch of our wellbeing hub and client portal.
Our Vision is to eliminate all forms of sexual violence and the harm they cause
We are here to provide support for change
Our Approach
We recognise that sexual violence is both a cause and consequence of gender inequality within society. Sexual violence crimes are gendered crimes that disproportionately impact upon women and girls.
In recognition of this and our founding ethos, we ensure that we continue to provide specified women only days in all of our premises, that services remain client focused and are delivered from an underlying feminist perspective and empowerment model.
We deliver sustainable, trauma informed, evidence based, evaluated services through WMRSASC’s core work alongside our Purple Leaf trading name.
Services are tailored for individual needs, supported by specialist teams, delivered in collaboration with a range of multiagency partners, supervised within a feminist leadership framework with the voice of the survivor at the heart of everything we do.