As charity partner for this year’s Highland Business Dinner, RASASH is highlighting the importance of partnership, awareness and collective action in creating safer communities across the Highlands. In this blog, CEO Romy Rehfeld shares insight into the charity’s work, the growing need for support services and education, and how collaboration with businesses can help make a meaningful difference locally.
As a local charity working across the Highland region, RASASH shares many of the same challenges faced by fellow members of the Inverness Chamber of Commerce – rising costs, transport and digital connectivity limitations, and difficulties recruiting and retaining people with specialist skills.
At the same time, we also share the determination, partnership-driven approach and community spirit that the Highland business community is known for. Our partnership with the Chamber, as its chosen charity for the annual Business Dinner, is a clear and valued example of this. At a time when charity funding is under significant pressure, this support is both timely and deeply appreciated.
We believe strong partnerships are built on mutual support, and we are dedicated to contributing real value to Chamber members.
At the heart of RASASH is our life-changing specialist emotional and criminal justice advocacy support for anyone aged 13+ who has experienced sexual violence. Alongside this, a vital part of our work focuses on building knowledge and confidence across communities – helping people understand what sexual violence is, how it can present locally, it’s wide impacts and responding with care when someone discloses.
This includes delivering education to thousands of young people across Highland, as well as providing training to workplaces across all sectors. With recent changes in legislation placing a legal duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment at work, we’re developing trauma-informed training to help organisations meet this responsibility in a way that is rooted in the realities of sexual violence in Highland.
Sexual violence never affects just one person – it has ripple effects across families, communities and workplaces. And creating safer communities is a collective effort. We’d welcome the opportunity to upskill you and your teams to help make that change, together. Watch this space for more details of our training offer across Highland.