Berry Burn Community Fund has granted £12,365 to the charity to provide specialist support.
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A TRAUMA support service has been awarded more than £12,000 to set up a base in Forres.
Berry Burn wind farm Community Fund has granted a total of £12,365 to Moray Rape Crisis (MRC) to continue to provide specialist support, information and advocacy for adults and young people who have experienced sexual violence recently or in the past.
Service manager Caroline Burrell is delighted with the support.
She said: "As a small local charity, we are very grateful for the support of the community which helps raise awareness of our work, letting people affected by sexual violence know we are here, and that they are not alone.
"Over the next year, this will enable us to provide a local outreach service for survivors of sexual violence in the Forres area for a day each week by one of our therapeutic support workers.
"We offer blocks of person-centred therapeutic support, usually weekly one-hour sessions. It's tailored to each individual and can include: help to understand trauma and its impacts; ways of coping with these impacts; and space to explore emotional impacts."
She added: "Survivors tell us our support helps them feel safer, more able to cope with trauma they have experienced, and increases their confidence, wellbeing and hope for the future."
A Moray-wide advocacy service helps navigate the justice process and there is also a group support programme
Over the past year MRC has supported over 200 adults and young people across Moray who have been affected by sexual violence.
Their prevention programme has also reached over 1600 young people in Moray’s secondary schools, including Forres Academy.
Caroline explained: "We deliver a range of participatory workshops to increase young people’s knowledge and awareness of sexual violence - including online sexual violence - pornography and sexual consent."
Members of the community can support MRC by donating, fundraising, volunteering or simply by following them on social media and sharing their campaigns.
"We are grateful for all donations," finished Caroline. "These go directly towards helping deliver our frontline services."
Contact Moray Rape Crisis on 01343 550407 or by emailing contact@morayrapecrisis.scot
For more information visit https://www.morayrapecrisis.scot/
