Community Projects
At SARAC, we believe that meaningful change starts within our communities.
Our community work is about creating opportunities for open, informed conversations around sexual and domestic abuse, healthy relationships, consent and safety, while helping people recognise that support is available when they need it.
Our Community Educators and Community Outreach Workers take this work into the communities we serve, building relationships, challenging stigma and creating pathways into support. Their work reflects one of SARAC’s core values: connecting with our local community to raise awareness and educate, while promoting equality, inclusion and access to support.
Community Educators
Our Community Educators work with youth groups and young people across the local area, creating safe and age-appropriate opportunities to talk about sexual and domestic abuse, healthy relationships, consent, boundaries and the impact of harmful behaviours.
A key part of this work is our Young Ambassador programme, which gives young people the opportunity to become a voice for positive change within their own communities. Young Ambassadors are supported and trained to develop their understanding of sexual and domestic abuse and to share this knowledge with their peers through signposting, mentoring and awareness-raising.
By giving young people the knowledge, confidence and tools to support one another, we are helping to create communities where conversations around abuse are more open, stigma is challenged and young people know where they can turn for help.
If you want more information about the Young Ambassador programme, you can reach out to our team at:
lesleyb@sarac.org.uk
zarak@sarac.org.uk
Community Outreach
Our Community Outreach Workers focus on reaching people and communities who may experience additional barriers to accessing support.
This includes working alongside underrepresented communities and developing trusted relationships within the large South Asian communities across Burton and the surrounding areas. Through community engagement, conversations and partnership working, our Outreach Workers create safe opportunities to talk about sexual and domestic abuse, healthy relationships, consent and support.
We recognise that cultural, social, language and other barriers can affect whether someone feels able to talk about their experiences or access specialist services. Our Outreach Workers work to build trust, increase awareness and help make services such as SARAC feel more accessible and inclusive.
If you would like to know more about the work our Community Outreach Workers are doing, you can reach out at:
shehzadm@sarac.org.uk
sanyak@sarac.org.uk
Both roles are about more than delivering information. They are about building relationships, creating conversations and opening doors.
Whether we are supporting a young person to become a Young Ambassador or working alongside a community to challenge stigma and increase awareness, our aim is to help create communities where abuse is recognised, healthy relationships are understood, and people know that they do not have to face their experiences alone.