RASASH

17/12/2025

💜 A Rotary-sized thank you…wherever you are! 💜

We’d love to say a huge thank you to a local Rotary Club for an incredibly generous donation of £500 to RASASH 🙌

There’s just one small mystery…the information that came with the donation didn’t tell us which Rotary Club it was. We’ve done our very best detective work 🕵️‍♀️ (emails, checks, double-checks!) but haven’t quite managed to track you down.

So, we’re sharing this thank you publicly in the hope it reaches you because we want you to know just how grateful we are. Your donation will help us continue the life-changing work we do with survivors across the Highlands, and that support truly makes a difference.

If you are part of a local Rotary Club - or if you know someone who is - please feel free to share or tag this post. We’d absolutely love to thank our mystery donors properly (and ideally in person!).

Until then, thank you for your kindness, generosity and belief in our work 💜

15/12/2025

Whilst there's lots of festive related countdowns on the go - don't forget this one - 4 more sleeps to get your applications in by noon on Friday for Highland Business Women's Charity of the Year 2026. If you know of any other amazing Highland charities, be sure to let them know! 💜

📢 Calling ALL Highland based charities 📢

Applications to become our supported Charity of the year for 2026, close this coming Friday (19th December) at 12 noon.

To submit Your application visit our website at https://hbw.scot/charity-of-the-year/

The selection process will take place on the 16th January 2026, at Bught Park Pavillion, Inverness. Tickets will be on sale after the closing date. All members in attendance have a vote at this event.

Highland Business Women ASB - Association of Scottish Business Women Federation of Small Businesses - FSB

12/12/2025

💜 Feel Good Friday! 💜

We’re ending the week on an incredible high thanks to Richard and his four-legged companion Breagha, who raised over £7,800 (including Gift Aid!) for RASASH by walking an amazing 142 miles throughout July. 🚶‍♂️🐾✨

Richard, his family, friends, and his business and local community went above and beyond with their generosity - and we are truly, deeply grateful.

Our Fundraiser was delighted to dig out the giant presentation cheque to mark this brilliant achievement and celebrate with Richard and Breagha in person! 🎉💜

What makes this even more special is Richard’s motivation. Alongside raising funds, he wanted to raise awareness so other survivors - especially men - know that it’s okay to seek help, and that RASASH is a safe, supportive place for anyone who needs us.

You can read more about Richard’s story and motivation on his JustGiving page: 🔗 https://www.justgiving.com/page/richard-and-breagha

Thank you, Richard and Breagha. Your strength, openness, and determination are making a real difference for survivors across the Highlands. 💜🌟

10/12/2025

🧡 Final Day of – but not the final word.

As we mark the end of this year’s 16 Days of Activism, we’re reflecting on the vital issues we’ve raised together over the past weeks.

🔶 Online and digital abuse is rising at an alarming rate. Survivors deserve stronger protections, meaningful regulation, and real accountability. Digital spaces are not separate from “real life” - they shape our communities, our relationships, and our safety.

🔶 We’ve highlighted how systemic power interconnects to normalise sexual violence. Whether through policy, culture, or everyday behaviour, these structures allow harm to continue and make it harder for survivors to be heard and believed.

🔶 We’ve also challenged the ways some groups misuse the language of “protecting women and girls” to reinforce racism, violence, and the patriarchy. This weaponisation undermines genuine efforts to tackle gender-based violence and makes marginalised communities less safe. Ending violence requires solidarity, not scapegoating.

Although the 16 Days campaign draws to a close, these conversations must not end here. We encourage you to keep speaking up, keep learning, and keep talking with each other about how we build safer, more equitable communities.

🧡 At RASASH, we will continue to raise awareness, challenge harmful narratives, and campaign for meaningful, positive change all year round.

Thank you for standing with survivors. Let’s keep going, together.

08/12/2025

🗣️| STATEMENT FROM RASASH|🗣️

Women’s and girls’ safety must never be used as a tool to spread fear or division.

RASASH is deeply concerned by narratives suggesting asylum seekers pose a greater risk of sexual violence. The evidence is clear: most sexual violence is perpetrated by men known to the victim, not by strangers or new arrivals.

We stand for facts, compassion, and meaningful action to end gender-based violence.

Read our full statement in the graphics to this post or her on our website: https://www.rasash.org.uk/news/

Support is available for anyone affected by sexual violence. You’re not alone.

08/12/2025

🎄 RASASH Festive Closure Update 🎄

As we approach the festive period, we want to send our community warmth, care, and our wishes for a peaceful and gentle end to the year.

RASASH will be closed from Friday 19 December at 5pm and will re-open on Monday 5 January at 9.30am.

Please note the earlier festive closures for our support services this year:

✨ Advocacy Service
• Closing for new referrals on Tuesday 16 December
• Re-opening on Tuesday 6 January

✨ Support Line
• Closing on Wednesday 17 December at 5pm
• Re-opening on Monday 5 January at 1pm

If you already have appointments booked, these will still go ahead as planned.

💜 If you need support during the festive period, the R**e Crisis Scotland Helpline will be open every day from 5pm–midnight.

📞 Phone: 08088 01 03 02
💬 Text: 07537 410 027
💻 Online live chat available on the R**e Crisis Scotland website: www.r**ecrisisscotland.org.uk

We know this time of year can bring up many different feelings and experiences. Please take gentle care of yourself and reach out if you need support. RASASH will be here for you again in the new year. 💜

05/12/2025

🧡 16 Days of Activism | Protecting Women & Children

At RASASH, our work is all about supporting people affected by sexual and gender-based violence. We know that statistically, this is an issue that disproportionately impacts women and children.

We also know from our work every day that sexual violence happens here, in the Highlands.

Weaponising women and girls’ safety to justify hostility toward migrants undermines genuine efforts to address violence against women and girls. It further reinforces the damaging myth that the greatest risk of gender-based violence comes from strangers, when evidence consistently shows otherwise.

03/12/2025

🧡 16 Days of Activism | Racism & Patriarchy

Our prevention & training workers talk about r**e culture every day – but did you know that other oppressive systems of power operate in a similar way?

Sexual violence is an abuse of power. And systems like white supremacy, ableism, and patriarchy take away power from women, people of colour, migrants, disabled people, and LGBTQ+ people, leaving these groups most vulnerable to all forms of violence.

During the , we want to remind everyone how important it is to call out and challenge harmful stereotypes and messaging when you hear it. No matter how small or normalised they seem, these comments and jokes form the foundation of a culture that excuses abuse and violence.

By speaking up against racism, homophobia, ableism, and misogyny, we can change the culture in our community—together.

**eCulture

02/12/2025

🧡 16 Days of Activism | Giving Tuesday 🧡

Today, on Giving Tuesday, we’re asking for your support to help us continue working towards a society free from sexual violence across Highland.

Every day, RASASH stands beside survivors but we can only do this with the help of our community. Last year, thanks to your support, we were able to:

✨ Support 473 people across Highland with specialist emotional support
✨ Receive 299 referrals from across the region
✨ Respond to over 2,000 calls, texts, and emails to our Support Line
✨ Deliver 1,000+ hours of criminal justice advocacy
✨ Provide 30+ training opportunities to upskill our wider community
✨ Reach 3,400 young people through 191 prevention workshops in schools and youth settings

Your donation today helps ensure that survivors have someone to turn to, that young people receive vital prevention education, and that we continue pushing for a safer, more just future for everyone.

💛 Donate this Giving Tuesday and stand with us against sexual violence.

Every contribution, big or small, makes a real difference.

https://donate.justgiving.com/charity/rasash

29/11/2025

🌙 1 Week to Go! – Rooted in the Dark: Living Myths & Stories of the Land
📅 Sat 6 Dec | 9:30 am – 3:30 pm
📍 Dundreggan Rewilding Centre, Glenmoriston

As part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, join Drama Therapy With Kate for an immersive outdoor retreat. Explore story, myth, and nature with a dusk walk, storytelling by fire, reflective time under the stars, and a shared lunch—all while supporting the vital work of RASASH. 💜

✨ Bring: Warm clothes, boots, curiosity & an open heart.

🎟 Grab your ticket now: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rooted-in-the-dark-exploring-through-living-myths-stories-of-the-land-tickets-1909324584229 - spaces are limited!

Slow down, listen, and honour community and story under the Highland sky. 🌲🔥

27/11/2025

16 Days of Activism | Ending Online & Digital Abuse

Under the UN theme of ending online and digital abuse, we’re shining a light on how our Prevention Team is tackling this head-on across Highland.

We deliver Equally Safe at School training with those working with young people, alongside Prevention workshops directly with young people – including our dedicated Online Sexual Violence workshop. These sessions open up honest conversations about consent, boundaries and digital behaviours in today’s online world.

One powerful tool we use across all our youth groups and event-style sessions is our card sort activity.

Young people are asked to explore different online situations and discuss what’s “ok”, what’s “not ok”, and what sits in that grey area. It always sparks passionate debate, challenges assumptions and creates space for critical thinking.

Our recent sessions at Wick Health & Wellbeing Day and Alness Youth Group showed just how impactful this can be – check out the photos to see the cards in action!

Online and digital abuse doesn’t happen in a vacuum – it happens in our communities, and we all have a role in preventing it.

🗣️ We want to hear from you.
What does digital abuse look like in our Highland communities?
And what do you think we can do to tackle it?
👉 Share your thoughts via our short form: https://tr.ee/GEdggdIYVW

25/11/2025

🧡 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence
📅 25 November – 10 December 2025

This year, the United Nations campaign focuses on ending digital abuse and at RASASH, we’re standing with survivors to say for online abuse.

Digital spaces should be places of connection and creativity, not fear and harm. But for many women and girls, they’re places where abuse happens every day through harassment, stalking, coercion, threats, image abuse, deepfakes and hate speech.

📱 Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women & Girls (TFVAWG) is any act carried out or supported using digital technology that results in physical, sexual, psychological, social, political or economic harm, or infringes on a person’s rights and freedoms.

Check out our post to find out more and add your own voice!

🗣️ We want to hear from you.
What does digital abuse look like in our Highland communities?
And what do you think we can do to tackle it?
👉 Share your thoughts via our short form: https://tr.ee/GEdggdIYVW (link in bio)

Let’s UNiTE to end digital abuse. Let’s make our digital spaces safer for everyone.