THE SYNERGY Essex partnership of three Essex Rape Crisis Centres provides a single point of access to support all victims and survivors of sexual violence/assault and child sexual abuse across South/North/Mid/ Essex, Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea.

Rape Crisis Centres have been providing services in Essex for over twenty years. Rape Crisis is one of the leading charities providing specialist, professional services to victim and survivors in England and Wales.

SERICC (Rape and Sexual Abuse Specialist Service) provides services for SYNERGY Essex in Harlow.

A spokeswoman said: “SERICC is delighted to announce that we now have a dedicated specialist sexual violence and abuse counselling and advocacy base in Harlow, working from the Latton Bush Centre,Southern Way, Harlow. It has taken some time to find a home in Harlow, Covid added to the delay.

Adult and child victims and survivors will no longer have to travel to one of our othersites in Essex. Requests for support from Harlow continue to increase year on year, sadlysexual violence and abuse still remains a ‘hidden need’ in Harlow”

“We have been working with Government Departments for a number of years and more intensely through Covid, where we saw sexual violence and abuse statistics reach an all- time high. The Everyone’s Invited testimonies and the Sarah Everard sexual murder saw a sea change in victims/survivors speaking out, demanding change and services and wanting to be seenand heard. There is now an opportunity to work more closely with key stakeholders in Harlow giving a ‘voice’ to victims and survivors, this opportunity must not be lost.”

Harlow MP Robert Halfon said:

“In my time as the MP for Harlow, I have worked with a number of constituents who have been victims of the most horrific cases of domestic abuse and sexual assault. I have seen first-hand the devastating impacts that these crimes have upon victims and their families and have worked hard in Parliament to secure changes to legislation to ensure more support for these victims. The services offered by SERICC are extremely important and I know how much they mean to residents. I am delighted that they now have a new base in our town and I know that this will mean more support for victims.”

A SERICC counsellor said: “I am really excited to have a Harlow base to call our own in the Latton Bush Centre. We can now stamp our own identity on our rooms and make them a calm, welcoming, and safe space for our service users to receive their specialist sexual violence and abuse counselling and advocacy support”

A SERICC service user recently said “being able to access my counselling in a central location has meant that I don’t have to worry about travelling to my sessions and can focus on what really matters – recovering from my sexual abuse.”