March 2019

The Male Survivors Partnership Inaugural Symposium

On Friday 29th March, we were so proud to hold our very first symposium which shone the spotlight on male survivors and looked at the history of the sector and the support available to survivors.

It was an absolutely fantastic event which allowed us to present a real overview into how the Male Survivors Partnership had been established and the vision for the future.

We received a fantastic response and incredible feedback which we really appreciate. Please keep an eye on our website and social media channels as we will be sharing some pictures and a video from the event, over the next couple of weeks.

The Male Quality Standards Accreditation

We are really proud and pleased to announce that the first few services have passed the accreditation process and been formally awarded the accreditation ‘quality mark’ by LimeCulture.

Victim Support West Yorkshire ISVA Service was the first organisation and service in the country to achieve the accreditation quickly followed by Survivors Manchester who were the first Sexual Violence Service to be awarded the Accreditation. Safeline UK, who operates the National Male Survivors helpline, became the first all gender counselling service to meet the standards.

The board of the Male Survivors Partnership would like to extend its heartfelt congratulations to everyone involved.

Next wave of sites to go through the accreditation process

As a result of securing further funding to independently accredit even more services, LimeCulture has announced 10 sites that have been selected to go through the accreditation process. The successful sites are:

1. Rape & Sexual Abuse (RASA) Centre

2. RSVP

3. The Green House

4. G4S/Blue Sky Centre SARC

5. PARCS

6. The Birchall Trust

7. Sunderland Counselling Service

8. St Mary’s SARC

9. Norfolk Police/The Ferns SARC

10. Kinergy

The Male survivors Partnership board wish each of the services the best of luck with the process.

Wave 5 – additional centrally funded accreditation places available

We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have managed to secure further funding to enable more services to join the Independent Accreditation Programme.

At our symposium on 29th March LimeCulture opened the application process to organisations who provide services to male victims/survivors of sexual violence.

If your organisation wants to apply for a free place you will need to complete an application form and self-assessment. These can be downloaded from the LimeCulture website www.limeculture.co.uk/accreditation.

Up to ten services will be selected to join the programme starting in June 2019. The deadline to apply is 26th April 2019. Further information about the standards can be found here.

Independent Review into the National Male Survivors helpline

We are really proud to announce that we have funded our first research project.

The research, being led by Dr Siobhan Weare, is reviewing data collected from the National Male Survivor Helpline and online service.

The data, collected over the three years that the helpline has been running, will be analysed, and will be supplemented by additional data collected by the research team through interviewing helpline staff.

The project aims to; a) develop knowledge and understanding about the demographics of those accessing the helpline, their reasons for accessing it, and outcomes following access, b) contribute to the development of a national empirical evidence base on the experiences of male survivors of sexual violence across the UK, c) explore whether patterns emerge in relation to the use of the helpline, d) consider potential policy and practice implications for organisations engaging with male survivors.

Findings will be communicated to MSP members, policy-makers, and criminal justice agencies.

The launch of the new Male Survivors Partnership Website

We are really pleased to launch the new Male Survivors Partnership website, a space that’s been developed to provide information and support to organisations working with male victims/survivors of sexual abuse, rape and sexual exploitation; and provide male survivors themselves with a single point reference to national and local support services.

You will also see some new NHS Self Help guides which are aimed at male survivors of unwanted sexual experiences. They range from advice on coping with PTSD, eating disorders, sleep issues as well as general advice on abuse.

National Male Survivors helpline and Online service

Just a reminder that we support the National Male Survivors helpline. The number is 0808 800 5005. The opening hours are as follow:

Monday 9am-5pm
Tuesday 8am-8pm
Wednesday 9am-5pm
Thursday 8am-8pm
Friday 9am-5pm
Saturday 10am-2pm

For those services that don’t offer a helpline function, please feel free to add these details to your website.

Social media

We have an established presence across social media via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Please make sure you follow our accounts and do send through any information about events/initiatives you are working on so that we can share the details and show our support.

Send information for social media to hello@malesurvivor.co.uk

Follow our social media accounts below:

Members and Communications Lead

The Communications and Members Lead, Becky Roberts is available to answer any questions you may have about the Male Survivors Partnership, so please contact her via hello@malesurvivor.co.uk or call her on 0333 772 1245.

Final note…

We’ve had a really busy start to the year and are really excited to see what the rest of 2019 will bring us. So much has happened within the political landscape and we are feeling really positive that our collective voice is being heard and changes are beginning to happen to help support male survivors of unwanted sexual violence.

Thank you for all your support so far and let’s keep up this fight together.