Fundraiser for grooming gang survivors retreat in Oxfordshire
A review into the abuse carried out by grooming gangs in England and Wales was published in June.It found that figures from the datasets were unreliable as the crime was "under-reported and suffers from confusing and inconsistently applied definitions".The audit, let by Baroness Louise Casey, has prompted a national inquiry into grooming gangs, while local inquiries are also carried out.Ms Edmunds said she had felt they were "too narrow in their focus".Speaking of her research project she said: "I envisage us doing this work for decades to come and I hope that I'll be able to pass it on to historians and archivists that come after me to carry on doing that work because [it is] what would you call it, a phenomenon scandal."
She also hopes the retreat, will be "the first of many" and will help "fill a gap left by poor mental health provision by the NHS".The project said survivors were "routinely offered as little as six sessions with an allocated talking therapist, an offer which is nowhere near adequate".She said she hoped the weekend away would be "a way to give them an experience of starting to feel a little more at ease in their own bodies"."If we do more and more of them, we'll start to build a community of survivors who can be that support system for each other," she added.
She added that women survivors had welcomed the idea, telling her that they hadn't been on holiday "for years", while another told her she was "desperate just for a break".Another survivor told her: "This will be completely life-transforming for me just to know that somebody out there cares."Reflecting on this, Ms Edmunds added: "So it's an appeal for people to think about the practical difference that you know we can make in each other's lives."The weekend retreat will run from 26 to 28 September at a hotel in Oxfordshire. Survivors can contact the project website for more information.
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