People with Lived or Living Experience of Abuse
How We Can Help
The RLSS support people with lived or living experience of abuse with a trauma-informed, person-centred approach. Our work is grounded in empathy, confidentiality, and a commitment to healing.
We won’t rush you or pressure you to share more than you are ready to. Individuals can even request to speak with a specific team member if that helps them feel safer.
Contacting Us
We know that if you have lived or living experience of abuse, getting in touch with a service like RLSS can feel overwhelming, disempowering and destabilising. That is why we will do everything possible to enable you to feel empowered.
We can work with an advocate if you aren’t ready to speak with us and you can also pick who you would like to speak to from the safeguarding team.
We also encourage you to get in touch via email first if this would make things easier. Picking up the phone to us might be scary but we also recognise the courage it takes and have nothing but respect for those who come forward to help us in our mission to make the Church a safer place for everyone.
Our Commitment to You
We will always work for and with each individual.
We will value and respect each person as an individual as they share their unique lived experiences.
We will actively listen and learn from each individual’s unique lived experience.
We will always engage with each individual with empathy, warmth and trust.
We will always work for and with each individual.
Support for You
Our team will be supportive and ensure that you have everything you need.
Occasionally, you may need some support that the RLSS team is unable to give you. If this is the case we will not only sign post you but we will help you gain access to these resources wherever possible.
Counselling is the most frequently requested form of support, and we have facilitated this for many of the people with whom we have worked.
How We Support Those Affected by Abuse
The RLSS is built on empathy, placing those affected by abuse at the centre of everything we do.
We take the time to understand your needs, working with you to explore the kind of support you’d like and what outcomes matter most to you.
Confidentiality
We strongly acknowledge that confidentiality is central to our work and we adhere to this commitment. However, we want you to be aware that there may be occasions where we cannot maintain absolute confidentiality.
We will always let you know when we must break the confidential agreement, who we will tell and when.
Counselling
People affected by abuse can often access counselling quickly. If this is something you’re considering or would like to explore, feel free to speak with the team to find out what options are available to you.
Safe Spaces
Safe Spaces is a free, independent support service offering a confidential and supportive environment for anyone who has experienced abuse connected to the Church of England, the Catholic Church in England and Wales, or the Church in Wales.
Reporting Abuse or Safeguarding Concerns
If you have experienced abuse or have any safeguarding concerns, we encourage you to reach out through our Make Contact With Us link below. All reports are taken seriously and handled with sensitivity, confidentiality, and care.
Testimonials
Kind Words
Your advice and reassurance has guided me, and the monastic community with whom I work, to ensure the needs of those whom we seek to serve are at the forefront of our thinking and our desire to hear their concerns, encourage them, to have a voice and act judiciously on their behalf.
- RLG Leader
It was so great to speak to you! Each time I communicate with you, you unveil the importance of your presence at RLSS and your outstanding competence. You have impressed me with the pleasant surprise of an email I was looking forward to receiving in the next couple of days. Thank you so much.
- RLG Safeguarding Lead
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you and all the casework team at RLSS for your excellent support. I am heartened by your timely responses, return of telephone calls, your manner, attitude, attention to detail, discernment, collaboration and professionalism.