The equivalent of more than 12 school rooms of children and young people received free counselling in 2018/19 to help them recover from sexual and domestic abuse thanks to a countywide support service.
Launched in April 2017, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Prevention and Intervention service is funded through a successful partnership bid by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and local authority to the Home Office’s VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls) Transformation Fund.
The project tackles the adverse childhood experiences of young victims and witnesses, aged 13-19 (24 with additional needs), of domestic and sexual abuse through community-based trauma-informed counselling. It also supports young people who use violence and abuse as a result of being themselves traumatised or victims of other types of abuse.
The service is delivered by the locally-based national charity Embrace – Child Victims of Crime (CVOC), under the banner Time4U. The charity works in partnership with the Cambridge and Peterborough Rape Crisis Partnershipwho deliver counselling services to young survivors as part of the project and the county’s Youth Offending Service to ensure young people receive the right support for them.
Anne Campbell, Chief Executive, Embrace CVOC explains: “Time4U allows us to provide wrap around care to those supported through the programme. We have also used charitable funds to extend the remit in a creative and innovative way. From providing equine therapy to help build confidence in young victims, to using trainee therapists to provide free counselling therapy for parents which helps heal the whole family, I am pleased to see so many young people supported and reporting positive outcomes.”
