Still no single sex Rape Crisis support in Brighton but…

@SigourneyHowardI believe the funding has been ring fenced but not actually handed over yet.

I’m wondering if anyone who knows about funding and commissioning would be willing to advise survivors on the steps we can take? I really don’t know how it all works. If so the Sisters Heal team are more than happy to take emails: [email protected]

Thank you for the support 🙏

Thanks @IwantToRetireyes it’s the Sussex PCC that are providing the funding. They have confirmed they will be extending it for another year which is great news, but also suggests SN may not manage to start the service within a year.

I’ve spoken to the PCC (who is lovely) as have lots of other women survivors. They are fully committed to funding the group and have been chasing SN. We can only speculate why SN are dragging their heels and not delivering the promised service.

SN appear to be kicking it into the long grass hoping everyone will forget. It doesn’t exactly restore the broken trust that needs restoring.

I’ve suggested the obvious - that the PCC give the funding to Sisters Heal who are set up and ready to run single sex groups, actually want to run single sex groups and would do it with sensitivity and compassion. Unfortunately SN are the official rape crisis centre for Sussex and the PCC have decided they should be the ones to run it.

Survivors are simply sick of waiting, and so many have had bad experiences at SN that they’ve created Sisters Heal.

Thank you for the support, as I explained earlier Sisters Heal relies on donations and is run by volunteers so word of mouth is so helpful. There isn’t the money for advertising or anything like that. Hopefully when it’s more established.

No female only service yet from Survivors Network. I’m waiting for an update and will share as soon as I know what has happened.

They have funding for the service, they have hundreds of women who need the service, they have signed a legal agreement to say they will run the service, they made a statement in July announcing they would run the service. But here we are 4 years and 3 months after I first requested the single sex group (yes I’m counting) and there is still no service.

I didn’t mean to break any rules 😳

it’s a not for profit org rather than a paid service. It’s funded by donations and all the directors are volunteers. I thought as it’s single sex then it would be ok to post on here. I’ve seen similar awareness raising threads about LWS, WPUK, FiLiA etc so I thought a Sisters Heal thread belonged here too.

Just bumping this thread for any women feeling burnt out from managing the mental load of Christmas and who need some TLC in 2026.

Everything offered by Sisters Heal is single sex. There are informal walks, trauma-sensitive yoga classes, group psychotherapy and therapeutic retreats.

The organisers are always happy to answer questions via email or WhatsApp if out of office hours - contact details are on this page: https://sistersheal.co.uk/contact/

Please spread the word and let women know there is a single sex space for them.

I’ve just heard that a couple of the women who have booked to come to Greece in April with Sisters Heal heard about the retreat on Mumsnet so I am posting the link to the retreat page as there will be another one in September.

Sounds like a lovely location. No traffic, no close neighbours and no men. How blissful!

https://sistersheal.co.uk/syros-retreat/

I’ve been asking those questions and I know the funders are keen to get the group enforced.

It’s just so disheartening that it has to be enforced. It’s not going to help survivors knowing that the support they are receiving is being given so begrudgingly.

Thanks for sharing the BBC article @dimple285 It actually highlights another beef I have with SN. They insisted the new women’s group must exclude all transgender people.

Sisters Heal welcomes and includes trans people born female.

It’s crazy when service providers don’t recognise that female people who transition often do because of trauma or sexual abuse. Male people who transition, particularly the ones in their 40s/50s, have very different motivations.

Thank you @SilenceInside! That is very kind of you 💐I hear someone has set up a monthly donation so if that was you or another mumsnetter please know that the SH team are all incredibly grateful and pass on their thanks! All donations are used to subsidise therapy for women who can’t afford it 💐

Four years of painful negotiations, a six figure legal bill, agreements made, funding secured and a commitment to run a women’s group. Then nothing.

Honestly, the whole rape crisis movement needs to be built again. Women did it before in the 1970s and the women at Sisters Heal are doing it again now. The existing system is a mess. Most Rape Crisis orgs are completely captured and ignoring women’s needs.

We can keep pushing these existing TRA orgs into reluctantly supporting women they don’t want to support OR we can start again and create our own orgs, like the brilliant women in Edinburgh and JKR have done with Beira’s Place.

Grassroots orgs like Sisters Heal are doing great work and I wanted to start this thread so women are aware of them. The more women they support, the more likely funders are to support them.

Any help you can give them would be so appreciated, it may be using the service, following on social media, sharing with women, volunteering or donating.

I think that is the most helpful thing right now 🙏