Manchester charity for survivors of male rape first in UK to be given award

The charity is the first of its kind in the UK to get the award

A Greater Manchester charity is celebrating after becoming the first of its kind in the UK to achieve the Male Service Standards.

Survivors Manchester, which provides support to male survivors of sexual abuse, rape and sexual exploitation, is the first sexual violence service in the UK to be awarded the standards.

The charity, which celebrated its 10th birthday this month, submitted a wealth of evidence to independent accreditors that demonstrated its ability to meet 24 separate quality standards across four area - leadership and governance, access and engagement, service delivery, and outcomes and evaluation.

Managed by LimeCulture Community Interest Company (CIC), the 12-month process ended with a site visit from the accreditors to Survivors Manchester’s new support centre on the edge of the City centre and Salford, where they met with trustees, staff and service users – all to further prove the quality of service.

Survivors Manchester’s Client Services Lead, Chris Whitehead-Baines, said: “We understand it can be hard for male survivors to trust professionals and services.

"We’ve always been really confident in our work, but this accreditation mark proves our services have been independently assessed and quality assured.

"It shows we have the needs of male survivors at the very heart of what we do and hope this gives further assurances to men making the very brave decision to contact us for support.”

Head of Operations, Chris Speed, added: “We’re incredibly proud of this achievement and for us to achieve this in our 10th birthday is even better. 

"We wish to thank LimeCulture for providing a robust and challenging accreditation process which highlights the support that male survivors of sexual violence should be able to access and massive thanks to our team and service users for their support and vision.”