Not every survivor wants to be an activist. Our abuse doesn’t define us and for many of us, just surviving the abuse and recovering from the trauma takes all of our energy and time. However, some of us have found that turning our pain into power and using our experiences to change things for others is empowering and can lead to growth and support recovery.
Survivor activists are welcome to join Changemakers, our activism network, and take part in any of our projects. If you have an idea to change your pain into power to help other survivors, or want to get involved, we want to hear from you. Additionally, you will receive invitations to take part in research projects that have been approved by our researcher Linking Service.
The Charter For Engaging Abuse Survivors
Our Charter for Organisations Engaging Abuse Survivors in Projects, Research & Service Development. provides the principles for all of our activism and projects. If you are planning or running a project or activity with survivors, we can help you to ensure your practice is safe and anti-abusive, based on the charter. We can also help you to recruit survivor participants through our network.
Changemakers
Changemakers is our network of survivor activists, who want to connect or work with us in research, peer support, training, campaigning, advocacy or any other survivor-led projects. Network members are invited to work with us on on all our projects and join peer training and support events for survivor activists. We send out a regular mailing and welcome information from other organisations seeking survivor involvement. To join the network, click here. If you are looking for survivors to be involved in your work, please contact us.
Abuse and safeguarding connected with churches and faith communities
We have a growing community of practice for survivors and allies interested in promoting survivors voices and trauma-competency in churches and faith communities. This includes work with survivors of faith-based abuse, and survivors whose faith is significant in their experiences of abuse and healing. Jane (Chevous) who is a church-abuse survivor, is a survivor representative on the Church of England National Safeguarding Panel is leading this work. She always welcomes hearing from other survivors of spiritual and church/faith-based abuse.
See our Peer Support page for details of our peer support groups for survivors of faith-based abuse and survivors whose faith/spirituality is an important part of their journey. Please contact us if you would like to join our special mailing list or be involved in this work.
Trauma-informed Theology and Survivor Spirituality
In 2021 we began a series of resources and conversations to develop a trauma-informed theology and a survivor-centred spirituality.
Our first publication was a Christian perspective on Redemptive Justice by David and Sue Atkinson: A Gospel framework for The Church of England’s on-going conversation with survivors of church-related abuse. (Click on the image to download).
We also contributed to a paper for the Church of England National Safeguarding Team’s Learning and Development programme, that explored a Theology for Safeguarding, which you can download here. We’ll be building on this work in 2024 and welcome others to join us.
In 2022 we produced a discussion paper on a possible model for Survivor Chaplaincy, which you can download here. Some Church of England dioceses and the National Safeguarding Team are looking to develop this service; and we are exploring a survivor-led, multi-faith chaplaincy pilot. Please contact us if you are interested in getting involved.
We continue a series of events and round table discussions for survivors and allies on theological and faith-based abuse issues, sign up to our mailing (choosing the Faith & Abuse Community option) and check our events page to join the conversation.
