SACA (Support after Crime and Abuse) Service
SACA supports people aged 5-18 who live in the Thames Valley and would like support following an experience of crime. We are here to help following an experience of any type of crime. Here are some examples:
- Serious and persistent bullying at school
- Sexual abuse or assault
- Witnessed or been a victim of domestic abuse
- Mugging or physical assault
- Exploitation
- Abuse via cyber crime
- Any hate crime relating to your personal or social identity
After an experience of crime, you might be finding it hard to cope with your feelings. You might find yourself feeling more emotional than usual, or you might find it hard to go outside and socialise, things like eating and sleeping may be difficult more for you than they were before the incident.
At SAFE!, we know that experiencing crime can have a big impact on your day-to-day life. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to us. We can support you in regaining confidence and moving forward from the event.
If you live in Buckinghamshire and you have experienced domestic abuse or been the victim of sexual harm, you can access support from our SASH Bucks Team.
Our range of support offers mean that we can work with you when planning your support journey with us. Once we are contacted by you, or have received a referral about you, we will assess your needs and talk to you about what sort of support will best suit you.
Project Work
Our professional Project Workers offer six one-to-one sessions. You can choose where you would feel most comfortable meeting; it could be at home, school, college, youth or community centre. We can also provide online support via telephone, text messaging and online video chat.
ChiDSVAs (Children’s Independent Domestic and Sexual Violence Advocates):
SAFE! also has workers trained as Independent Sexual and Domestic Abuse Advisors who can help you and your family to navigate the criminal justice process if there is an ongoing criminal investigation.
Groupwork
We run a range of groupwork approaches where you would have an opportunity to meet other young people who have had similar experiences to you, and to learn about healthy relationships, feeling confident and staying safe.
Our workers use what is known as the ‘Protective Behaviour’ model. Every session we hold has two central themes.
- ‘Everyone has the right to feel safe all of the time’
- ‘We can talk with someone about anything, even if it feels awful or small’
By using these themes, we will:
- Listen to you without judgement and help you to think about what you might want to do following your experience
- Create a space to talk about what has happened and how you’re feeling about it
- Help you to think about keeping safe in the future, including developing coping strategies to help you when you’re feeling unsafe
- Give you information about reporting a crime and what might happen if you do report
- Work directly with parents where appropriate to ensure that you are well supported
- Signpost to other organisations and services if needed
It’s entirely up to you about how much you want to share about what happened. You are also in control of how much or how little support you would like to access with us, which also means that you are free to stop support whenever you’d like.
Details of what you share with us in sessions remains confidential, unless there are things that you might want us to share with other people, or if we feel that you or someone else may be in danger. Our priority is making sure you’re safe!
Once you have been referred or asked for help, you can access our Text Support Service, online drop-ins and webinars.
SAFE! can offer you online support as soon as we have your details.