The Women’s Centre Cornwall is a charity with over 27 years experience supporting women and girls living with the impact of sexual and domestic abuse.
The Women’s Centre Cornwall was originally set up as The Women’s Rape & Sexual Abuse Centre (WRSAC) in 1996. It was created and continues to be run by women, many of which have lived experience of sexual and domestic abuse.
Our vision is a world in which women and girls are safe, respected and empowered to fulfil their potential free from violence, inequality and oppression.
We are a member of Rape Crisis England & Wales and meet The Rape Crisis National Service Standards: ‘independent, community-based and work from a trauma-informed perspective to provide confidential, specialist services to victims and survivors of all forms of sexual violence and abuse’.
Read more about the The Women’s Centre Cornwall’s journey over the last 27 years.
Everything we do reflects the values we share:
Feminism is about women and girls having equal rights and opportunities and being able to access them. We are a proudly feminist organisation and we believe in the power of offering services that are run by women, for women.
We believe that women and girls are the experts in their own lives. We give women and girls the space to recognise their power and create the futures they want for themselves. We are led by women’s voices, and we put their choices at the heart of our work. By empowering women, we support them to take control of their lives, to know their rights and speak up for what they need.
We believe that the women and girls respond to the harm caused by violence and abuse is normal and that every woman responds differently to this trauma. As a trauma-responsive organisation, we do not believe that women are broken and disordered because of the ways they have coped with their experiences. We understand and respect what women have done to survive.
We are brave and speak out against injustice, violence and oppression towards women. We will keep working for the change that is needed in society to make sure women and girls are free, safe and empowered in all spaces.
We make the effort to invite and welcome all women into our community. We recognise, respect andcelebrate our differences. We do what we can to make sure everyone has equal opportunities to progress and succeed. Our community is one where women can feel as though they belong – they have a purpose and their voices matter.
We believe that with the right support, any woman or girl can have the life they want for themselves.We are hopeful that we can live in a world free from violence and oppression. We will always listen to women and work with other organisations in the community to make sure women have the services they deserve.
We offer free support to women across through our wide range of free projects and services:
Specialist Support Service (One to One), Helpline, Campfire Forum & Mobile App, Young Empowered Women’s Project, Body Work, Group Work and Sorella Peer Support Project
The Open Service, Mentoring, Women’s Assertive Outreach Project, Krefta Kernow
DIVAS, Older People’s Project, International Women’s Group
We offer specific support for women facing multiple disadvantages such as homelessness and discrimination, as well as women with learning disabilities and migrant women.
The Women’s Centre Cornwall works hard to ensure all women and girls across Cornwall and beyond can access the quality support they deserve at no cost to them.
As well as offering support, we work to create change in our society by speaking out about the causes of male violence against women and girls. We run events, campaigns and try to influence policy both locally and nationally.
“I never thought support would be this good or so effective. After years of minimising my abuse, I can finally see what I have survived and understand why I have felt so angry for so many years. What a gift this is to feel free.”
“The Women’s Centre Cornwall is such an important place, it has been an absolute lifeline for me, like a precious jewel that I found, I don’t know where I’d be without it.”
“Your help has changed me completely, from where I was to where I am, I am so much stronger. You have confirmed that I am a good person, I use to have so much self-doubt I wondered if it was just me that this happened to.”
We believe the ripple effect of our work in women’s lives over the last 27 years cannot be measured in numbers, however we are proud of some of the figures which show the impact of our work.
Between March 2022 – March 2023:
We strongly believe that in order to support and serve individual women and girls, we need to make change for all women. This means taking action to create change and influence policies, laws and beliefs in society.
Find out more about how we campaign for change.
We also work to influence local, regional and national decision-makers through ongoing, trusted relationships, so that policy and commissioning decisions may be based in better understanding of the lives and needs of women living with the impact of sexual and domestic abuse.
We lead the way nationally for our work in reaching those who face extra barriers in accessing support. We are widely recognised as a centre of excellence and were named Cornwall Council’s Charity of the Year 2022-23. We were awarded the One Small Thing Trauma Informed Silver Quality Mark in 2021.
We have received many other prestigious awards including: the Criminal Justice Board’s Award for Outstanding Service to Victims & Witnesses, the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the Home Office Gold Star Award, a Howard League Award for our Mentoring service.
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