RSACC is a feminist, women led charity working to end rape and sexual violence by supporting and empowering survivors across Darlington and County Durham. We support all survivors of sexual violence.

RSACC was established in 1990 and is unique in Darlington and County Durham in providing free and confidential face to face counselling, telephone, email, ISVA and group support to survivors of rape, sexual abuse and domestic abuse. RSACC is a member of Rape Crisis England and Wales and part of its national network of 43 Rape Crisis Centres.

Want to know more about the history of RSACC?

Click here to hear about how RSACC began over 30 years ago with just 3 members of staff.

Meet our team

  • Isabel Owens

    Isabel Owens

    Isabel has worked in senior roles across the voluntary sector for 7 years managing and developing services to meet clients needs.

  • Karen  Leech

    Karen Leech

    Karen has over 30 years experience of working in communications, both in the private and public sectors. She has led many high profile regional and national campaigns.

  • Jacqui Heward-Hill

    Jacqui Heward-Hill

    Jacqui has a background in education and personal development with a special interest in mental health. She has successfully developed and facilitated training programmes for health and consumer charities

  • Victoria Matthewson

    Victoria Matthewson

    Victoria is experienced in securing grant and contract funding for charities, having worked for 16 years in a range of roles within the non-profit sector.

  • Alex Carruthers

    Alex Carruthers

    Alex has worked at RSACC for 7 years. She started as a volunteer counsellor, and now manages the counselling service which provides specialist support to survivors.

  • Jamie Allinson

    Jamie Allinson

    Jamie has a legal background and has over 7 years experience in supporting survivors of sexual violence. She's an experienced Independent Sexual Violence Advisor and also manages our ISVA team.

  • Kate Larkin

    Kate Larkin

    Kate is an experienced voluntary sector manager with a particular interest in mental health and sexual violence. With a history of supporting children, young people and adults in a variety of contexts across the North East for over 15 years, Kate is now managing our volunteers and the services they provide.

We are a feminist, women led charity working to end rape and sexual violence by supporting and empowering survivors across Darlington and County Durham

We offer free, safe support to anyone who has experienced any form of sexual violence at any time in their lives.

Reach out now

Sillouettes of two women holding hands

Vision

We are a feminist, women led charity working to end rape and sexual violence by supporting and empowering survivors across Darlington and County Durham.

Values

  • Feminist
    We are a feminist, women led organisation that work from an intersectional feminist perspective, recognising sexual violence as a crime of violence, abuse of power and a cause and consequence of gender inequality.
  • Empowering
    We believe the best way to support survivors is to empower them. This means we work to create an environment where individuals are able to use their own agency and achieve their full potential
  • Person Centred
    We work from a person centred approach and believed that individuals have within themselves the capacity to effect change.
  • Specialist
    We are specialists in sexual violence. We have built this specialism, knowledge and expertise with survivors, based on their experience and understanding. We will continue to do this.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

RSACC seeks to be an inclusive organisation that actively encourages, supports and values diversity amongst our clients, staff and volunteers. We wish to create environments that are fair, respectful, and inclusive for all.

RSACC is committed to intersectional feminism and anti-oppressive practice. We have developed an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan which commits us to continuously examine our practice and actions .

RSACC is committed to anti- racism. We have developed an Anti Racism Action Plan, which outlines the actions we plan to take to identify and address racial inequality and racism within our organisation. Through this work, we will be aiming to dismantle barriers within RSACC to ensure we do not perpetuate racism and can create a truly inclusive environment for our clients, staff and volunteers.

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