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. 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).

‘The Castle Service’, 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.

How we can help:

• Provide free and confidential help tailored to the person affected by the crime, even if they have not reported the crime and it doesn’t matter when the crime took place, it could be recent or historic.
• Our Caseworkers offer low-level emotional support, focusing on their feelings around the incident, addressing their anxieties, fears or anger.
• Practically supporting someone, we can send alarms, such as personal alarm keychains or window and door alarms for their home, advocating with the police for investigation updates and signposting or referring to other relevant agencies.
• There may be times where VS isn’t the most appropriate service, and it is in the client’s best interest to work with the expert that can address their needs.

What we don’t do:

• We do not work for the police; we are an independent service.
• Our caseworks won’t talk about the crime itself to help prevent re-traumatisation.
• We do not provide counselling; we only provide low-level emotional support. We would instead, signpost to our partner agencies, such as NW Counselling Hub (https://www.nwcounsellinghub.co.uk/).

Referrals:

• You can refer into our services by emailing the multi-crime team lincs.vcu@victimsupport.org.uk or the Castle Service castleservice@victimsupport.org.uk. 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.

Victim Support Lincolnshire:

Website: https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/lincolnshire

Tel: 01522 542687 (Monday to Friday 9am-5pm) 
If no one is available to pick up the call, please leave us a message.

Email: lincs.vcu@victimsupport.org.uk

The Castle Service:

Tel: 01522 542687 (Monday to Friday 9am-5pm) 
If no one is available to pick up the call, please leave us a message.

Website: https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/lincolnshire/the-castle-service/

Email: castleservice@victimsupport.org.uk

Victim Support National 24/7 Support:

• 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/).