Vital womens services short of funding
Article published: Monday, May 19th 2008
Talk of a crisis in Rape Crisis has hit the national headlines recently, as several high profile campaigns call for better funding for centres in the UK which provide services for rape victims. Rape Crisis centres, part of the national Rape Crisis movement, provide counseling and support for thousands of women and girls each year who are survivors of rape and sexual abuse.
Manchester Rape Crisis (MRC) is one such service. Cuts in 2006 meant that they had to reduce their number of paid staff to one part time member, in an organisation which relies heavily on unpaid volunteers.
“We receive no funding from the police, explains manager Anne Stebbings. “We also receive no funding from the Primary Care Trust, despite the fact we provide an important service for women experiencing mental health problems as a result of their abuse, and get a consistent level of referrals from GPs.
This year Manchester Rape Crisis received funding from the Home Office, and a charity, Lankelly Chase, but this comes to an end with the 2008/09 financial year, suggesting more insecurity and anxiety to come.
“We do not know what our financial situation will be then, says Anne. The struggle to find secure funding prevents us from developing our service.
Statistics on rape and sexual abuse are notoriously difficult to pin down, due to the low conviction rate for perpetrators. However, surveys suggest that one in four women have experienced rape or attempted rape, and in most cases the perpetrators are known to them. This may account in part for the extremely low conviction rate for perpetrators: just 6 per cent of reported rapes result in a conviction, according to the Home Office. However, the real rate of convictions is probably much smaller, as so few survivors report their experiences to the police in the first place.
Practically none of the women we work with have been to the police, says MRC manager Anne Stebbings. I can only think of two clients in the last two years who have got as far as trial… a large proportion of the women we talk to have not told anyone of their experience until they tell us.
But the aim of Rape Crisis is not to improve conviction rates, although we would like to see this explains Anne. According to a national report by the Womens Resource Centre which came out this month, survivors of rape and sexual abuse report improved mental well-being, reduction in self-harming, better inter-personal relationships, the ability to return to work or study and the ability to reduce or stop medication as just some of the positive outcomes of using Rape Crisis services.
You could be forgiven for thinking that such vital services would be paid for with public money, but this is not necessarily the case. Manchester Rape Crisiss core funding comes from Manchester City Council, says Anne Stebbings. However the amount only enables us to run half of the current services provided. We have to find the funding to provide a full service from other sources. This is a constant source of anxiety and frustration.
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