Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre welcomes Durham University’s CCAFC support for International Women’s Day by challenging toxic behaviour

Darlington and Co. Durham’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Centre (RSACC) has welcomed the challenge to toxic behaviour taken by Durham University’s Collingwood College Football Club (CCAFC) as part of International Women’s Day (IWD).

This year’s IWD theme is #ChooseToChallenge, and the students and players at CCAFC have created a short film to highlight the unacceptable behaviour shown by some male students against female students and the need for everyone to challenge it where they ‘see it and hear it’. In particular they highlight inappropriate touching, rape jokes, the use of sexist language and some of the incidents that were made public last year in regard to messages shared by male students in group chats.

The support by CCAFC, is part of their year long sponsorship of the charity which has so far seen them undertake a fundraising run through Durham City, and have RSACC’s logo on their football strips to raise awareness of their support.

Deputy CEO at RSACC, Isabel Owens commented:

“We are really pleased that the students have taken this step to shout out the toxic behaviour that supports sexual violence against women. The more accepting we are of individuals telling rape jokes or turning a blind eye when a woman gets groped at a night out, the easier it is for sexual violence to happen. Rape doesn’t just occur in a dark alley somewhere between strangers, it happens every day to women in their homes, their university accommodation, at parties and in their friends houses. We hear everyday about the pain, trauma, guilt and shame experienced by sexual violence survivors. Our workhelps them to cope with what happened to them. Films like this one, clearly show that the perpetrator is the only person responsible for sexual violence, and that we all need to challenge the type of behaviour that can lead to rape.”

The film includes executive members of CCAFC, all of whom are students at Durham University’s Collingwood College. Dan Aichen, commented:

“The members of CCAFC’s Exec are fully committed to challenging the toxic rape culture that is highly prevalent at Durham University. We want to take full advantage of our partnership with RSACC and our large platform to start changing the culture at Durham to a safer, more inclusive one for everyone. We hope that this video will help kickstart the education and awareness process for the students in our club, college, and wider university community.”

The students had planned to use 2020/21 raising vital funds for the charity – however much of their planned activity has been curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Should anyone which to donate to RSACC they can go here: Support us – RSACC (rsacc-thecentre.org.uk)

If any sexual violence survivor needs professional and expert advice and support, they can call RSACC’s confidential Helpline on 0300 222 5730, Monday to Thursday 10am-2pm and Tuesday and Thursday 6.30pm-9.00pm.

Thanks to Benmusic.com for the soundtrack to the video.