Victim Support

Victim Support are a charity that provides free, independent and confidential support to anyone affected by crime or traumatic events in England and Wales, including those who have not experienced crime directly, but their friends, family and any other people involved.

Victim Support Lincolnshire is independent of the police, local authority, and the government.

How does crime affect people?

Everyone is different and therefore crime will affect people in different ways. One of the things that can make a crime really hard to cope with is knowing it was done deliberately by another person. Unlike an accident or illness, people who commit a crime intend to cause some sort of harm. The effects of crime can also last for a long time, and it doesn’t depend on how ‘serious’ the crime was.

Some people cope really well with the most horrific crimes while others can be very distressed by a more minor incident.

We support people who have experienced various crimes such as antisocial behaviour, assault, burglary, fraud, hate crime, stalking.

While we can assist with most types of crime, we do not support victims of domestic abuse or adult victims of sexual violence. Instead, we would signpost and refer to specialist services (LDASS, EDAN).

We do have a specialised area within Victim Support Lincolnshire, called ‘The Castle Service’, which provides specialist services for children and young people under 18 years old who are victims of sexual offences, including rape, sexual abuse, child sexual exploitation, and more.

The Castle Service is run by our Children and Young People’s Sexual Violence Advocates (CHISVAs), who work to help children cope and move forward from their experiences, whether that is recent or historic.

Our local contact information for Victim Support Lincolnshire:
01522 542687 (Monday to Friday 9am-5pm)
[email protected]

The Castle Service:
01522 542687 (Monday to Friday 9am-5pm)

The Castle Service

National 24/7 Support Available:
• Support Line 08 08 16 89 111 – this is a free service
• Our free Live Chat service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, where you can receive immediate support (https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/live-chat/).
• My Support Space is a free online resource/mobile app containing interactive guides aimed at helping people to manage the impact crime has had on them with over 70 guides. This resource is for 16 years and above (https://www.mysupportspace.org.uk/).

Referrals:
• You can refer into our services by emailing [email protected]. We can only contact the service users if we have received explicit consent for us to do so.
• Service users can self-refer and request support via our website (https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/help-and-support/get-help/request-support/). A member of our team will respond to them within three working days.
• If you are not sure if a referral is for us, please call and we can help 01522 542687.

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