Advocacy is a separate service from counselling, for information about counselling, please click here.
Advocacy is about helping people to access information and services, to be involved in decisions about their lives, and to explore their views and wishes. It assists people in exploring choices and options, defending their rights and speaking out about issues that matter to them, to regain or maintain power and control over their own lives.
We are an independent service working with women and girls aged 13 and over who have been affected by rape or sexual violence at any time in their live, and who are either considering making a report of rape or sexual violence to the Police, or have already made a report.
We aim to offer advocacy support in a number of areas, that our work with survivors tells us are often areas of need after an experience of sexual violence. Advocacy is not limited to these areas, and we will work with survivors to identify where and how advocacy could best support them.
The staff who work for our Advocacy service are called ISVAs, which stands for Independent Sexual Violence Advocate. If you’d like to know more about what they do, read our guide to a day in the life of an ISVA.
At SARSVL we have ISVAs who support women aged 18 and over, and a specialist Young Person’s ISVA who supports girls and young women aged between 13 and 24.
Find out more about our Advocacy service
To refer yourself, or someone you are working with to our Advocacy Service, please click here