The Home Office has awarded grant funding of £355,670 to the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), so that it can meet more of the ever-growing demand to its national free telephone support line for adult survivors of child abuse.
Gabrielle Shaw, NAPAC’s CEO, said: ‘Call attempts to our telephone support line have rocketed over the past three years. One of the hardest things for us is knowing that people have plucked up the courage to call and may struggle to get through. This funding will help enormously, by enabling NAPAC to double the number of calls we can take. We took over 6,000 calls last year and had over 94,000 call attempts, so this extra funding is going to make a real difference to survivors.’
Demand has risen steadily over the past three years, from
• 61,666 call attempts in 2015
• 83,449 call attempts in 2016
• 94,161 call attempts in 2017
• One in seven callers are telling someone for the first time about the abuse they suffered in childhood.
• £20 helps us to provide support to someone via a half hour phone call.
• NAPAC will continue to rely on donations from individuals to help us keep pace with ever-increasing demand.
• NAPAC has just 10 staff, so even small donations make a really big difference.