SARSVL stands for Support After Rape and Sexual Violence Leeds.
We’re a specialist organisation offering a range of services to women and girls (including cis and trans women and girls) in Leeds who’ve been through child sexual abuse (CSA), child sexual exploitation (CSE), rape or any kind of sexual violence at any time in their lives.
We also welcome nonbinary people who feel our woman-centred approach is right for them.
We’re specialist because we understand sexual violence and abuse, the trauma it can cause, and the impacts it can have.
We listen and believe. We don’t judge or tell people what to do.
We’re a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. We’re the professionally-approved Rape Crisis Centre for Leeds, and members of other professional bodies.
We’re also proud members of the Women & Girls Alliance – Leeds with other local women’s and girls’ organisations, and we sit on the Steering Group for Visible, a Leeds project improving health and wellbeing with adult survivors of child sexual abuse.
We work in partnership with others so we can support and promote the needs and rights of anyone who’s been through sexual violence or abuse. But our services are independent, for example of the police or social services.
We are a trans-inclusive women’s organisation, which means we are run by and for women and girls (including cis and trans women and girls), and nonbinary people who feel our women-centred approach is right for them.
We offer women-centred services and spaces because many survivors feel safest and best able to heal from the trauma of sexual violence and abuse in this kind of environment, and because it’s not often offered by others.
Our services are free. We can provide our face-to-face services through interpreters into other languages, and we offer travel and childcare expenses for those who need them.
We know getting support after rape or sexual violence and abuse can be hard, and we don’t want to make it harder. That’s why we’re an intersectional feminist organisation, committed to anti-racism, equity and inclusion.