Devon Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse Services (DRCSAS) was commissioned in 2011 to support women and girls and our core values were established as; feminism, trust, respect, equality, choice and quality.
Our organisation has grown exponentially since 2011, however our core values and primary aim of supporting female survivors of sexual violence has always been, and will remain, at the centre of everything we do.
DRCSAS understand that sexual violence is both a cause and consequence of gender inequality within our society and as such is a crime that disproportionately affects women and girls.
All of our services are provided from a feminist perspective and are designed to ensure the well-being, physical health and mental health of survivors of sexual violence. This ultimately enables those who use our services to regain control and power lost through their experiences of sexual violence.
As the organisation has grown DRCSAS has expanded its services to support men and boys, trans men and trans women and people who define themselves as non-binary. We define sex as ‘biological’ in line with the Equality Act 2010 and as clarified in recent legal developments, including the Supreme Court ruling in 'For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers'.
When you reach out to us for support, we will ask you the following questions so you can have a choice in who will support you and how;
Which type of support space would you feel most comfortable accessing?
- A group or service for biological women only
- A group or service that includes trans women and non-binary people
- A mixed-gender group or service
- One-to-one support
- I’m not sure yet / I’d like to discuss this with a staff member
We will also ask you who you would like to be supported by
Would you prefer to be supported by:
- A biological woman only
- A specialist service for LGBTQ
- A specialist male service for men
- I have no preference
- I’d like to discuss this further
We are proud to work with other expert local organisations who can support you to access support for rape and sexual violence, so you get your needs met. This includes Intercom Trust (for LGBTQ) specialist support and Momentum for men and boys. We recognise that sex and gender matter when supporting survivors of rape and sexual abuse and encourage you to tell us what you need so you can get the best support possible for you.
What does DRCSAS offer?
We are a female only organisation, which means that we only employee women staff and volunteers. We are led by a female board of trustees.
We offer women only spaces 4 days a week. This is on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On a Tuesday we offer an all-sex and all (or none) gender day.
We can also work flexibly with you in an on-line space on any day of the week and we also have some evening support slots available.
When we take your referral we will ask you to confirm your consent and understanding by asking you to confirm the following;
- I understand that DRCSAS offers both biologically single-sex female and trans-inclusive services.
- I understand that I will be informed about the nature of the service I am being offered.
- I understand that I can request a different service option if I feel the one offered does not meet my needs.
I want to extend my deepest, most heartfelt gratitude to my counsellor for the wonderful counselling I have received. She has utterly restored my faith when I felt no one wanted to help me. Her kindness, patience and gentle guidance has transformed both how I see myself, and how I see the world.
I've never felt so respected, valued, or that my voice was heard as I have in my sessions with her. She has given me my life back. I believe it is also testament to the strong feminist values of DRCSAS.
Your organisation's commitment to the voices of women is, I think, what makes your services so uniquely valuable at a time in women's lives when they feel most dis-empowered. Thank you.