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RSACC welcomes Durham University’s Collingwood College AFC continued support for sexual violence survivors in Darlington and Co. Durham
Darlington and County Durham’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre (RSACC) is delighted to confirm that Durham University’s Collingwood College Football Club (CCAFC) has chosen them as their annual charity for a further year. The football club will help to raise essential funds to support the work of RSACC, as well as supporting campaigns to bring greater awareness of sexual violence and toxic behaviour to Collingwood College students.
RSACC offers free confidential counselling and support to sexual violence survivors and works to end rape and sexual violence in Darlington and County Durham by supporting and empowering women and girls.
Tragic cases like Sarah Everard (herself a Durham University graduate), Sabina Nessa and Julia James are just some of the women who have been raped and/or murdered by men in 2021. In fact the Crime Survey of England and Wales shows that over 144,000 women experienced sexual violence in the last year. That’s nearly 400 women every day and the recent Official National Statistics show that sexual violence offences have increased by 8% under the pandemic, when many other crimes have fallen.
In the last 12 months, CCAFC – along with fundraising for the charity through a 24hr run and a 24hr football match – also supported RSACC-led campaigns to highlight the 16 days of action to eliminate sexual violence against women and International Womens Day. The club also ran its own awareness raising campaigns to highlight male toxic behaviour and the need to be a good ‘bystander’ by calling out inappropriate behaviour amongst male students.
Christy Mageean, from CCAFC’s Executive said:
“We are really pleased to be able to support RSACC for a second year. Last year was a fundraising challenge for us due to Coronavirus, but we hope to be able to make up for it with opportunities such as our Charity Ball in January and another 24hr Football Tournament in early summer. We’ll still be wearing our RSACC football kits and hope that our further support for the charity will also help challenge inappropriate behaviour and issues such as needle and drink spiking.
A toxic male culture creates the space for rape and sexual violence to thrive and as a club we want to challenge this and educate our members and the wider student population.”
In 2020 – despite the pandemic – RSACC helped 607 clients, delivering 3,014 counselling sessions, and supported 15 survivors bring successful prosecutions against their perpetrators. Although this is a tiny percentage of the survivors who reported their assault to the police.
RSACC Deputy CEO, Isabel Owens commented:
“It’s great news that CCAFC has decided to fundraise for us for a second year. Last year was very challenging from a fundraising perspective, therefore CCAFC’s donations of nearly £11k was amazing, and made a real difference to the lives of the survivors we support.
Sadly, we have an ever increasing waiting list, with survivors waiting months for our specialist counselling. However, with donations like these we were able to offer more survivors counselling sessions, along with our Helpline and other tailored support services.”
CCAFC will be supporting RSACC with their campaign on November 25th, for White Ribbon Day and the Elimination of Sexual Violence Against Women’s 16 days of action.
We are also delighted to be part of the Co-op Local Community Fund, meaning that Co-op members who select RSACC as their local support can raise vital funds for the charity when they shop.