Rape and sexual abuse centres in Essex receive over £1.2 million National Lottery Funding

A partnership of three rape and sexual abuse centres in Essex has received over £1.2 million from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

Synergy Essex is one of almost 200 charities and community groups in the East of England doing vital work with communities, to have been awarded over £13 million of National Lottery funding in the last three months.*

Synergy Essex is a partnership between South Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centre, the Centre for Action on Rape and Abuse and Southend-on-Sea Rape Crisis. The three centres cover the entire county, and ensure victims and survivors of sexual violence and abuse in Essex have access to high-quality support services.

The funding from The National Lottery Community Fund enables Synergy Essex to continue delivering support to new and existing beneficiaries. Between April 2021 and March 2022, over 6,000 individual cases were supported by Synergy Essex and almost 34,000 one to one support sessions were held.

Synergy Essex has received national recognition for its model of support and mentoring services. Since the project’s inception, Synergy Essex has worked with specialist rape and sexual abuse services across London, Lincolnshire and the West Midlands to improve its services.

A person who has benefitted from the service said: “The staff explained all the help they could give me and said it in a way that I actually understood. The staff listened to what I had to say and made me feel like there was a way forward. Knowing that someone is there who understands the situation lifts a big weight.”

Lee Eggleston OBE, Operations Manager of SERICC, said: “Providing a triage service for survivors, family members and agencies has had an enormous impact on our community and how they can access holistic support. We are delighted to receive this news and would like to thank National Lottery players for this essential continuation funding of over £1.2 million. The funding enables will enable us to grow a new project team to seven staff and develop new prevention resources and online e-learning products for the ICENA training team.”

Helen Bushell, Head of Regional Funding for London, the South East and East of England at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “Thanks to National Lottery players, and the hard work and dedication of local projects like Synergy Essex, this funding will provide specialist sexual violence and abuse support to survivors in Essex. We’re pleased to see our funding is being used to give people support when they need it most.”

Essex isn’t alone in benefiting from National Lottery funding. Today it was announced that almost £133 million of National Lottery funding has been awarded to over 2,400 community groups in England in the past three months.*

National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes across the UK. In the last 12 months we have given out nearly £600 million to 12,500 organisations reaching every local authority and constituency in the UK.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk