Dear RASASC Team,
It can be difficult to find the positives sometimes, especially right now with shorter, colder days, the usual flow of hard to hear news and all of you working flat out. With that in mind, I want to showcase the remarkable impact you are all having on survivors in Surrey:
In 2024/25, we supported 1,293 people and delivered over 14,000 activities. Of those;
- 77% reported an improved ability to cope,
- 73% felt more informed,
- 66% experienced better safety and wellbeing.
Waiting times for one-to-one counselling have reduced and while waiting, clients are supported more effectively.
Both Lisa Townsend, Police Crime Commissioner for Surrey and Alex Davies-Jones MP (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Minister for Victims and Violence Against Women and Girls) have praised RASASC this year for the “dedication and skill” demonstrated in finding “ways to ease trauma for clients.”
Thank you to those of you who contributed to the 2025 staff survey. We have compared the results with the 2024 survey and, overall, the responses are very encouraging, indicating improvements in some key areas. We are also aware of areas that need ongoing attention and progress.
Overview
The 2025 results show overall improvement and continued high satisfaction. Access to support and training, confidence to speak out, feeling engaged and responsiveness from leadership all showed notable improvement. Staff and volunteers continue to feel their roles make a positive difference and use their skills well and overall satisfaction remains at 100%.
While the results overall demonstrate a strong culture within RASASC and indicate improvements in key areas, they also show that there is a need for better connection and ongoing improvement in visibility at an organisational level.
Next Steps
I intend to build on the progress we have made with a continued focus on visibility and communication from myself and the Board. In addition, the commitment to diversity and inclusion must be maintained and embedded in every aspect of the organisation. With regards to communication more generally, again we will build upon the progress we have made to ensure that people feel connected, seen and heard whatever your role.
Your hard work and commitment is not going unnoticed and I thank you for everything you do, over and above, on a daily basis.
Daisy
Welcome and goodbyes
Welcomes:
We'd like to extend a warm welcome to Youth Counsellor Antonia Cacioppo, and volunteer counsellors Susanne Pugh and Karl Ayling. Welcome to RASASC!
Goodbyes:
And a fond farewell to ISVAs Audrey Moore and Alice Reid, and counsellors Ruth Davis, Naomi Light and Zoe Green. Thank you for all of your invaluable work, and good luck for the future.
Admin team
It has been a busy couple of months for the admin team, with ongoing recruitment and inductions for new staff and volunteers.
We are also receiving an ever-increasing amount of requests for client notes from the police, solicitors, and clients themselves to support their cases and compensation requests. These requests take time, and Vicki works hard to ensure they are dealt with sensitively, confidentially and in a timely manner.
As well as working on the administration for the Youth Counselling Service, Sophy and the team answer queries and signpost those who contact us by phone and email. Our wonderful volunteers, Udval, Joan and Julia have been a fantastic help welcoming our clients, making sure the office is safe and comfortable and helping with the many and varied requests the admin team receives every day.
As well as this the team and our admin volunteers are helping with special projects such as the brand refresh, the introduction of the intranet and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion group.
Fundraising
In September, Helen and Evette attended the High Sheriff Youth Awards Garden Party where we were presented with an award in recognition of the valuable service RASASC provides across Surrey. The High Sheriff of Surrey has also generously awarded £4,000 towards our youth counselling work.
We were delighted to secure a grant for £5,000 from the Community Foundation for Surrey towards our rent, as well as £500 from TKMaxx and Homesense for our youth counselling
We have a lovely volunteer, Izzi who is supporting us across Fundraising and Communications. Izzi will be supporting Helen and learning all about fundraising, writing bids, researching prospects and securing grants as well as working with Kate to learn about our communications work, our work on social media, the website and learning about design.
For anyone who may have missed it, we now have a handheld donation device called a paya machine, that enables people to make a card donation to RASASC quickly and easily. The device sits in reception in its lovely bright new stand! (pictured left!). Anyone can use it, so please do let people know what it is and what its there for.
The idea behind having a handheld machine is that it makes it so much easier for people to give, and it's remarkably effective!
We recently took it to a talk at the Women's Institute, the High Sherriff's Garden Party and Surrey Pride, and collectively across these three events, we raised £450 in donations.
Please do take the paya machine out with you to all events, talks and meetings. it's a really easy and effective way for people to donate. There is a booking form in the cupboard behind the admin team to book it out, so please complete this so we can keep track of where it is.
If you have any questions about the paya machine or making donations, please speak to Helen.
Support Line
Following refocusing the helpline into an outbound Support Line service for those on the counselling waiting list in February, we now have 112 clients who have opted into the service and receive regular calls from our volunteers. The most outstanding thing we have found is the feedback we receive from the clients, some of whom have been waiting a long time without any contact since their original counselling assessment. They tell us it is good to know they are not forgotten; we offer some light at the end of an often dark tunnel, and helps them as they manage through their day to day lives.
The team of 10 volunteers has also recently been boosted with three new members, all of whom show the same level of commitment and empathy for the clients as they take time out of their own busy lives to support others. The service continues to evolve with the feedback from the volunteers and clients, and we can’t believe it has been in operation for eight months already!
Along with supervisors Melanie and Christine and the wider RASASC team we will continually listen and learn and work to provide the best possible level of interim support to deliver something that we don’t believe any other service is offering, to provide the client with a fully rounded and wrap-around service and ensure they are supported in the best way possible.
ISVA Team
The team are all doing well and remain upbeat regardless of the ongoing challenges we face from the criminal justice system!
In terms of resourcing, we are pretty stretched at the moment, having lost a few of the team to new challenges. Audrey Moore has now left and moved on to a job supporting offenders and the homeless, as well as Alice Reid who has left to take up a job with Farnham University. This is on top of us also losing both Char and Sophy earlier this year.
Following these changes, we are covering both the outreach project and covering clients from those that have left. This is incredibly challenging for the team but as always, they all work above and beyond for our clients.
We are in the process of recruiting one new ISVA to help fill some of the gaps, and we’re hopeful that funding will allow us to recruit for a second ISVA very soon.
Bea has just started her third peer group with the assistance of Bev, one of our volunteer counsellors. The peer group is proving to be popular, and there is a waiting list for the next group, which is planned for early next year.
We continue to build and maintain good relationships with Surrey Police, CPS, SARC, Victim liaison at Probation, CICA and Guildford Crown court, inviting them to our team meetings on a regular basis.
I have no doubt that the state of the CJS has a huge effect on the team, with clients having to wait so long and facing constant delays and postponements. We are also impacted by the overwhelm of other services such as counselling and the Mental Health Team.
We have had to reduce other work we would normally offer while we are stretched so thinly, such as presentations to agencies and groups to allow us to prioritise the needs of our clients.
However, we are a very friendly bunch! If you would like to pop in and meet us and find out more about what we do, you will always be welcomed with a smile and the offer of a cuppa!
Counselling
Autumn is a time of contrasts, change and reflection, but also hope.
“I was struggling and suffering for two years, I felt I was drowning, there was no light but now I can’t recognise myself how much I’ve grown and healed. I feel I can live now and not in the shadows. Thank you”. RASASC Counselling Client
Our counsellors, both in our Adult and Youth Counselling services, do amazing work with our clients who teach us courage and resilience every day. From June to September, 58 clients started counselling, 63 finished, and there are currently 95 in counselling. Adult referrals continue to be capped at 15 a month, which we reach within 10 minutes of opening the website on referral day!
The Youth Counselling and Family Support team has recently expanded to meet the demand for the service, offering more sessions and flexible appointments to support our young survivors. Welcome to the new faces and a big thank you to the team for providing safe spaces where young people can heal and find hope.
As we know, sexual violence can ripple through family life, so to be able to offer Family Support alongside can make all the difference- it helps everyone find a way forward together. We feel very lucky to have the opportunity to collaborate between services to bring real change to those we support.
We are part of a team of 36 counsellors, and our numbers are increasing. If we add support from the office and supervisors, we are part of a 48 strong RASASC team. We make a difference which we can all be proud of!
The Online Introductory Group continues to be offered as part of our support to clients on the waiting list. The groups facilitated by RASASC counsellors help clients understand the impact of trauma, and the importance of self-care. After a break from October the next groups will start in January. Thank you to our hardworking facilitators.
Since June we have had several training opportunities including; Understanding and Working with Trauma workshops, Online Abuse Training, Suicide and Risk Workshop and the Client’s Experience of the Criminal Justice System. We have further training booked in November including the Trans Lived Experience and Pre-trial Therapy, and into next year. Watch this space!
We are finding ways for counsellors to meet with our ISVA team and learn more about their role. The ISVAs have invited counsellors to attend team meetings when outside speakers attend.
Finally remember, as seen on a mug of hot chocolate, “Sweater weather is better together” we are part of a great team. Wrap up warm out there!
“Autumn…the year’s last, loveliest smile” – William Cullen Bryant
Christmas celebrations
Apologies if it's too early to mention the 'c' word, but we are starting to think about a RASASC Christmas do!
We will of course update you with more details as soon as we have them. We are just settling on a date, and once we have this, I will be back in touch with more details!
Daisy
