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Challenging Misconceptions-The Power of Art

In March we were proud to support this performance, which used music and drama to challenge misconceptions about sexual assault, by producing some flyers and  promoting it on social media. We’re delighted that composer Chloe Knibbs, an activist we’re proud to be connected with, has written this blog for us reflecting on the performance, its impact and the power of art in challenging myths and raising awareness about sexual abuse. You can hear Chloe talk more about her work on 27th April, details below.

By Chloe Knibbs:

Just over a month ago, I had a performance of my work – “The Girl Behind the Glass” – a piece that used music and drama to explore sexual assault recovery (for more details, please see: http://thecuspmagazine.com/reviews/girl-behind-glass-review/ ).

The piece was made up of singing, cello music, drama and recordings of my own song material and was performed with great empathy, care and attention by all the performers (Suzie Purkis, Abigail Kelly and Megan Kirwin).

In everyday life, most people are exposed to issues of sexual assault in the 5 minutes it is featured on the news. And yet for this performance, people were staying with these issues for an hour. Naturally, I was terrified – would people just switch off? Would they be disgusted by it? Could they find beauty in the process of sexual assault recovery?

Moreover, sexual assault is often viewed as a one-off alien happening. Often most people would like to pretend these things do not happen. Or point to the ways those who have experienced sexual violence should have handled the situation differently – “Did you actually say no?”. Moreover, depictions in the media often make it seem that those who have experienced such trauma will be permanently broken and forever vulnerable – “Her life will never be the same again”. And so often there is misunderstanding around the process of recovery – “But it happened a year ago, don’t you think you need to move on now?”.
This was why focusing on recovery became integral to the work. I was keen to demonstrate the non-linear – and sadly often traumatic in itself – nature of recovery. Many survivors talk of feeling like that they have been split in two, that one part just remains with the trauma whilst the other part attempts to maintain ordinary everyday life (despite everything feeling anything other than normal). As a result, I decided to make the two singers represent parts of the same person, a visual indication of just how fractured someone may feel in the aftermath of this type of trauma. The piece followed the journey of these two parts of the same person at various points. There was the denial, the withdrawal, the anger, the self-hatred – how the media and responses from others can feed this – the trauma symptoms, and the coming together of these two parts with acceptance and self-compassion.

The performance finished with yellow flower petals falling down to the stage floor. It was a funeral of what had been lost. It was hope. It was pain. And accepting that pain. I sat quietly, wondering what the audience responses would be. Would they have been affected? Would they have been affected too much?

After the performance I gave out feedback forms to all the audience members, with just one question: “How did the piece affect you?” And after plucking up enough courage, it did take five days (!), I read them and was incredibly surprised by the reactions.
It turned out there were a number of survivors in the audience, and all had written of how they could connect with the performance and how helpful – also exhausting – that had been. I was massively touched by this, and I think it is the best feedback I could have ever received. The fact that these individuals came to the performance was incredibly brave, and I am so glad they felt they could share their stories with me.

And there was a second surprise. Many of the other feedback forms included sentiments such as “I will rethink how I respond to these issues in the future”. Or “I have an insight into the difficulties people face when trying to recover from sexual assault”. When writing the piece I had hoped it would open people’s eyes, or make them aware of the negative impact certain comments or responses can have. Nevertheless, I did not expect this level of feedback. As an artist, I am inevitably invested in the power of art – for myself, for others, for communities – but I had underestimated it this time. For people to be prepared to rethink and question the normalised responses to rape and sexual assault, gave me an insight into what changes could be made in the future. Perhaps one of the audience members will meet someone who is dealing with these issues, and they will be the voice of compassion that challenges the judgement and stigma. They will be a voice of hope, for the 85,000 women and the 12,000 men in the UK who experience sexual assault every year (https://rapecrisis.org.uk/statistics.php ).

Most importantly, this experience showed me that art can make human what has been dehumanised, stigmatised. That putting these issues in a context other than the news or social media, can give people the perspective to see things differently. To see that the rape and sexual assault is hideous, but that those who experience it are not. That life will be different, but these people are no less human or beautiful.

With thanks to Birmingham Conservatoire, mac birmingham, RSVP Birmingham for supporting the piece.

Also, for more information on this piece, Chloe Knibbs will be talking at Badego’s Short Talks Event on the 27th April: http://badego.org.uk/events/small-talks-april-2017/

@ChloeKnibbs1
soundcloud.com/chloek92

Infinity fundraising update

Some lovely news to share before Christmas – the kind folk at Infinity Stage Company organised a fundraising ball for us earlier this month, and raised a fantastic amount for RSVP.  £846 to be precise!

Infinity chose RSVP as their charity of the year for this academic year, and they’re already making a real difference. A big thank you to the whole team.

If you’re interested in checking out their work – you can see them in a production of the Vagina Monologues in February at the University of Birmingham. Check their Facebook page for more information www.facebook.com/InfinityStageCompany

The Tahlia Banks award – helping young people achieve their educational goals

We are extremely grateful to Supatrax for supporting one of our clients via the Tahlia Banks award. Tahlia Banks passed away in April 2015 after a life long battle with Cystic Fibrosis, aged 20. Despite her condition, Tahlia inspired many to achieve through her media and radio skills and successfully enrolled on a BA Hons Degree in Media and Communications.

Through this award, one of our young clients now has her own laptop that she can use to do homework, and achieve at school. Huge thanks to the Tahlia Banks award for supporting this young survivor to overcome disadvantage for a more hopeful future.

Our exceptional ISVA team!

We’re delighted to announce that the RSVP Independent Sexual Violence Advocacy (ISVA) team has been given the Exceptional ISVA Team award at the first Limeculture Limelight awards, a real credit to their tireless work for survivors. The award acknowledged the immense changes that the ISVA team had gone through, including losing a much loved team member Vicky Bardsley, to cancer last year.

Lime Culture are the training establishment who offer a high standard of training to ISVAs around the UK.

The Umbrella sexual health partnership has seen the ISVA team double in size this year and really broaden the scope of advocacy support, developing the profession and what it means to advocate for survivors.

Yvonne Langham, Head of ISVA Services and Margaretta Vauls, Children & Young Person’s ISVA, were there to accept the award along with CEO Lisa Thompson.

“As Head of ISVA Services at RSVP, I am absolutely delighted that our amazing ISVA team has won the Lime Culture LimeLight Award 2016. We had a really lovely day which ended fantastically when we were announced as the most exceptional ISVA team. Wow, I’m still smiling and feeling terribly proud!  The lovely glass trophy I accepted on behalf of the team now sits in our reception area, please take a look when you next pass through.

This award confirms that our staff are truly a remarkable bunch of people, who always go the extra mile and work to the best of their ability to offer support to those who need it. We assist any female or male survivor who needs advocacy support with anything relating to the sexual abuse or sexual violence they have suffered. For example, we can assist with medical appointments, arranging counselling or helping people all the way through the Criminal Justice Process should they decide to report the abuse to the police. There are many ways the ISVA team can assist you, please feel free to ask for a call from one of us if you feel we may be able to help.

Due to prior ISVA commitments such as attending Court or accompanying clients to sexual health screening, getting everyone together for a Team Award picture has proved to be a challenge! I have taken a photograph of each member of the team with the wonderful award.” Yvonne Langham, Head of ISVA Services.

Margaretta was also nominated in the children’s ISVA category, well done Margaretta! The children’s ISVA award was named the ‘Vicky Bardsley award’ in memory of our wonderful friend and colleague. The winner of that award was Helen Leach of RASA Merseyside who has set up a children’s service from scratch.

Thank you to Limeculture, and to those who nominated the team.

You can read more about the ISVA service here

Lisa our Local Leader

We’re so proud of Lisa, our CEO, who recently won a Birmingham-wide Local Leader Award 2016 for her leadership here at RSVP. She received her award alongside other third sector leaders in Birmingham for her excellence in leadership, her commitment to her team, and her contribution to society.

In her video application, Lisa talked about her team being her inspiration, and her job as a leader merely about creating a positive environment for her team to thrive in.

“My job…is to create a nurturing, safe, boundaried environment where my team can get on with their work, utilise their skills and fly. Where they can harness their knowledge and humanity to restore the broken trust of the people we support, and for that I celebrate and salute them.”

We salute you too Lisa, thank you for your great leadership and we look forward to a bright future with you at the helm.

For more information about the Local Leaders Awards see their website here.

LimeLight Award Nominations!

Our amazing team has been recognised once again, this time by LimeCulture – the UK’s leading sexual violence training and development organisation. This year marks LimeCulture’s first ‘LimeLight’ awards, which aims to ‘acknowledge the outstanding contributions and achievements of individual ISVAs, ISVA Teams and ISVA Managers who have demonstrated excellence, dedication and commitment to supporting victims of sexual violence through their work’.

We are honoured to have been nominated for two out of the possible four awards.

Margaretta Vauls has been nominated in the ‘Children and Young People’s ISVA’ category (named the Vicky Bardsley Award after our colleague, who was a children’s ISVA) for her outstanding commitment and contribution to her field of work.

The whole RSVP ISVA team has been nominated in the ‘Award for Exceptional ISVA Team’ category, a real credit to their constant demonstration of excellence in the service of survivors.

We couldn’t be more happy and proud of our ISVA team in being recognised, but also for the incredible work we know that they do everyday, helping survivors to cope and thrive through difficult circumstances. Thank you to LimeCulture for recognising us in this way.

The awards will be announced on 28th September, so keep your eyes peeled for the results!

We just had our AGM…

Our Annual General Meeting took place last night (13th September) in the RSVP offices. It was a great evening looking back and reflecting on the year we have had, and celebrating all we have achieved. Achievements such as supporting over 1000 counselling clients, over 2000 helpline callers, and over 450 adult ISVA clients, meaning that including all our other services, we supported 4,193 clients this year, a 54% increase on last year’s figures. We were also able to celebrate because 82% of our clients reported an increased feeling of confidence, 90% of our ISVA clients felt better informed about police and court processes due to ISVA support, and 100% of clients were more hopeful for their future.

The year has been a huge success, with our office expansion, new services being offered, and new staff being employed. All of this means we are able to do more to see survivors of sexual abuse flourish and live their lives to the full.

Last night was also an opportunity to give out our annual ‘Above and Beyond Awards’, presented by our Chair, Sally Plumb. These are to recognise members of staff and volunteers who do so much more than is asked of them in service of our clients. This year’s winners were Emma Jordan (one of our counsellors), Margaretta Vauls (a child and young person ISVA and counsellor), and to the whole RSVP Team as a whole for continuing through this year in the face of a huge office expansion, and the loss of our beloved colleague, Vicky.

If you would like to know more about our year, and the successes we have had, our annual report will be available on here shortly.

BCLC Autumn Quiz Fundraiser!

On Tuesday 18th October, Birmingham Chinatown Lions Club will be hosting their Autumn Quiz in aid of RSVP! The event will take place from 7:30pm at Edmunds Brew House (B3 2ES), and costs just £5 per person to enter – which includes canapes on entry.

If you’re a keen quizzer, or just want to support us in the work that we continue to do, book in a team of up to six people with Lion Stewart, who can be contacted on 07973833519 or stewart@chamberlainssurveyors.co.uk. Thank you in advance for your support, we can’t wait to see you there!

(Click on the image below to take you to our event page for the quiz)

RSVP selected by John Lewis

John Lewis has selected RSVP as one of three Community Matters charities over the next three months at their Birmingham city centre store. £3000 will be shared amongst the three charities, and it’s up to customers to decide how much each charity receives! You can help RSVP raise funds by using a token to select us the charity you’d like to support. You can find the information, and tokens at the Place to Eat, Level 4 and Customer Collections, Level 2.

We’d love it if you could vote for us, and spread the word!

Vicky’s Room

Tuesday 21st June was about a very special person, Vicky. She was our beloved colleague who we lost last year. Since she was one of our children’s advocates, with the blessing of her family, we have created “Vicky’s Room”, a safe welcoming space where we’ll support all the sexually abused children and young people that we see.

Vicky’s Room

On Tuesday we held a launch event for her children, family, friends and colleagues. It was an emotional day but a great success too. We had lovely feedback about the special space that we’ve created as Vicky’s legacy. For everyone who attended it was both a proud day and a sad one at the same time.

We are pleased to share these images with you and let you know that Birmingham now has a special place to support children who’ve been sexually abused. Our thanks also go to:
-Vicky’s family, friends and loved ones, including those who gave to Vicky’s appeal last year

-the funders and businesses who donated to us

– to the builders who helped create our newly expanded premises.

To you all, we could not have done it without you. Vicky would feel so excited about the warm colourful space that traumatised children can now be safely supported in, so they can grow and thrive after sexual abuse. Just the sort of thing that Vicky helped so many children achieve.
Lisa, CEO.