Our Mission
To support women survivors of sexual violence, promote and advocate for their needs and work towards the elimination of sexual violence
We aim to do this by:
- Providing a diverse range of effective services that meet the needs of women and girls in Oxfordshire who are affected by sexual violence
- Raising awareness of the prevalence and impact of sexual violence and the needs for specialist services to support survivors
- Challenging and changing public attitudes about sexual violence in Oxfordshire and beyond
Our Values
Non-Directive
We do not try to influence women to take any particular action, nor do we try to impose our views on their decisions. We help women to explore their options, in a way that does not pressure them to choose any specific path.
Non-Judgmental
We do not judge the women who use our service or other OSARCC members, but we do not permit abuse of others and will challenge discrimination.
Empowerment
We aim to empower survivors to make their own decisions and to support them in whatever way they need.
Confidentiality
Whatever a woman says is confidential to the organisation within the limits of our safeguarding policies
Free
We provide a service free of charge in order to be accessible to all survivors.
Challenging Discrimination
We are a non-directive and non-judgmental organisation, but we will challenge discrimination in any form.
Committed to Good Practice
We work hard to ensure our services are consistently offering high quality support. We welcome feedback from the women we support to ensure we are able to continue to develop our services. Please see the feedback page for more details.
Led by Women
OSARCC believes that sexual violence is both a cause and consequence of women’s inequality and discrimination. We are therefore committed to challenging such discrimination in our work, to run our services for women by women, to delivering our services in a safe, women-only space and to working within an empowerment approach.
Belief
We believe what women tell us. Furthermore, we firmly believe that rape is never the fault of the survivor and we actively seek to challenge this myth.