£120,000 funding for Fife group to help abuse survivors

The Kingdom Abuse Survivors Project (KASP) is set to receive almost £120,000 from the National Lottery to provide counselling to adults who have been affected by childhood sexual abuse.

The money will be used by the charity to employ a volunteer co-ordinator to help recruit more volunteers to help cut the lengthy waiting lists and two sessional staff to provide group sessions to those on the list.

Joy Patrick, manager of the charity, said the funding was very welcome and desperately needed.

“At present people contacting us for help are having to wait eight or nine months for counselling, which is not ideal at all,” she explained.

“We are a small charity with only five paid staff and 11 volunteers and all our volunteers are people going through counselling training at university or college who come to us on placements towards their qualifications. They get the experience they need towards their coursework and we get the benefit of their skills and knowledge.

“The money will also help develop our group work sessions which people are offered while they are waiting to see a counsellor.

“People contact us looking for help and they have an information session to find out what we do and what we can offer and decide if it is for them. While they are on the waiting list they can participate in group work, looking at some of the issues affecting them.

“For many people making that initial contact can take a lot of courage. For some, they have come to talk about a secret they may have carried most of their adult life and that has many repercussions on different aspects of their lives.

“Being put on a waiting list can often mirror waiting for the abuse to happen, causing additional strain on their mental health, which is why reducing our waiting list is so vital.”