#GiveMe5 is live
As part of Charity Tuesday, Local Giving will be matching 1000 £5 donations all day today. Each £5 donation made today will go into a draw, randomly selected donations will be matched by Local Giving, meaning donations are doubled at no extra cost to you.
To make a £5 donation, and enter the draw for match funded donations, go to localgiving.org/charity/rsvp-wm
The next #GiveMe5 is on 16th December.
Empowered First Steps…
Lisa our CEO is delighted that her blog which encourages survivors of rape to take empowered first steps is in the Huffington Post. Thanks to Emily Jacob from Reconnected Life for providing Lisa and RSVP with this opportunity. Read Lisa’s blog below:
“The link between ultra-runs, any run over the 26.2 miles marathon distance and the empowerment of rape and sexual abuse survivors is not an obvious one. However, on September 3rd 2016 in Iceland when I crossed the finish line of the 155 mile ‘Fire and Ice‘ race one of the toughest multi terrain races in the world, that link was most definitely made, and not just because I was fundraising for RSVP and survivors’ services: www.localgiving.org/fundraising/fireandice
What you rely on and discover in a hard 6 day challenge like ‘Fire and Ice’ is your inner metal, the steel that makes up your core and determines what you are made of. It is your metal that helps keep you calm when inside you feel afraid as you traverse a mountain side in treacherous conditions, where there is not a vehicle, road or another living soul in sight. It is your metal that enables you to dig deep when your body has sprung an early surprise injury on you, meaning that you’ll be forced to approach the race differently and feel pain you hadn’t expected. It is your metal that enables you to stay positive even when the conditions are dire. It is your metal that keeps you in tune with your needs, ensuring you make the right decisions for you to provide strength to power you through. It is still your metal that keeps you centred, positive and hopeful despite the almighty challenge ahead.
And, beyond any doubt, metal is at the very centre of every rape and sexual abuse survivor I know, far more metal than it takes for an ultra-runner to complete any race. The metal survivors have enables them to find reserves within them when they thought their absolute limit had been reached and it renders survivors with capability, strength and resilience that they probably rarely give themselves credit for….
Lisa’s blog is continued here on Huffington Post.
Working with people who experience trauma related dissociation
On Thursday 16th February, we will be welcoming back First Person Plural to continue their excellent training on trauma related dissociation.
Using a mix of experiential, group discussion, audio visual media and didactic training tools the day aims to further improve understanding of the complexity and contradictions in how people who experience dissociation may present. It supports and develops participants existing professional knowledge and training through providing complex dissociation specific information and practical suggestions. It encourages development of participants’ practice when supporting a person who dissociates who is in crisis.
The training is delivered by Kathryn Livingstone and Melanie Goodwin from First Person Plural, who are experts by experience. They deliver a professional training day that provides a unique perspective with generous sharing of lived experience to enhance theoretical learning.
Attendance on the introductory day is the ideal prerequisite for entry onto this training. However, if you have not attended the first part of the training, we can share resources with you to view in advance: First Person Plural’s training film “A Logical Way of Being” and the chapter on Stabilisation from “No Two Paths The Same”. Please contact sarah@rsvporg.co.uk to request these resources, after booking.
Thursday 16th February
Priory Rooms, 40 Bull Street, Birmingham, B4 6AF
Voluntary organisations/individuals – £75 + booking fee
Statutory/private organisations – £90 + booking fee
Book via https://www.eventbrite.co.uk
Santa Cause 3
Come along to a great charity evening where everyone wI’ll have a fun night whilst supporting our specialist charity.
Every year we support thousands of survivors of rape, sexual violence and sexual abuse whether they are men, women, children, asylum seekers or trafficked people. The demand within Birmingham and the West Midlands is growing at an unacceptable level. We need your help and support to raise our profile and to also help engage supporters.
Santa Cause 3 – The Return of Mrs Cause, will take place on Wednesday 23rd November 2016. The plan is to meet at The Bank Restaurant & Bar in Brindley Place, Birmingham for a welcome drink of wine, beer or bubbly and photo shoot starting at 6pm. Everyone will then be given a special seasonal outfit before we leave for our second venue. The first 100 people to book will be given a free seasonal outfit sponsored by our good friends and supporters Orton Estates Ltd…… So book your tickets here !
Then at approximately 7.30pm we will move onto Zizzis where you will receive another free welcome drink of bubbly and food.
We then will move to our final destination of the night Nuvo, at approximately 9pm where we spend the remainder of the evening where there will be a DJ, a raffle with some great prizes and treats for a Christmas party!
Unlike our Santa Cause events on previous years we are keeping this event to three venues to allow for a more leisurely approach.
Book your tickets on the link above but if you do require any additional information please contact us on:
info@rsvporg.co.uk
We look forward to seeing you there!
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.
Grow Your Tenner is live
It’s Grow Your Tenner time with Localgiving. Donations of £10 will be doubled by Localgiving at no extra cost. That means a £10 donation made to RSVP today turns into £20, and a new regular monthly direct debit donation of £10 is turned into £20 for the first three months. If you’d like to support our work providing specialist services to survivors of rape and abuse, this is really the best time to give. The scheme is live until the pot of money (£345,000 for all charities’ match-funding) runs out. Each charity may receive up to a maximum of £2,500 of match funding through the campaign: £1,000 from one-time donations and £1,500 from Direct Debit donations matched for 3 months. Donations to RSVP will be matched until the limit is hit or the match fund has run out.The money was all used up in 11 days last year!
Go to our LocalGiving charity page to donate www.localgiving.org/charity/rsvp-wm/
Read more about Grow Your Tenner www.localgiving.org/what-we-do/campaigns/grow-your-tenner
Thank you in advance for your support, and please feel free to spread the word!
Thanks to Waitrose Community Matters
A huge thank you from the RSVP team goes out to Waitrose Four Oaks branch for presenting RSVP with a cheque for £380. The sum was raised via their Community Matters programme, where shoppers vote with tokens for the charity they most want to support.
The funds will go towards specialist services for survivors of sexual violence, so we can continue our work supporting people across Birmingham and Solihull.
A crisis in young people’s mental health – World Mental Health Day
On World Mental Health Day (an annual event that aims to raise awareness of mental health issues) we want to acknowledge the current crisis in mental health among children and young people. There have been a number of really shocking reports released in the UK that highlight the increasing levels of mental illness, particularly among girls.
According to a survey by the Young Women’s Trust 38% of girls and young women show high levels of mental distress, and 29% of boys and young men. According to a report by Girlguiding, 80% of girls and young women aged 8-21 feel that looks are the most important thing about them.
At RSVP, we take a trauma focused response to our services. Rather than asking ‘what is wrong with you?’, we try to understand what has happened to a person and how this impacts on their mental health and wellbeing. We provide young people with a safe and supportive space to talk about their feelings, we don’t judge and we understand that each survivor copes with trauma in their own way. If you want to get in touch about our specialist practical and emotional support for 5-18 year olds who are survivors of sexual abuse, contact our Advocacy (ISVA) team on 0121 643 0301 option 2 or isva@rsvporg.co.uk
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.
