Live chat

Service Update

The live chat will be closed on:

Tuesday 24 December 2024
Tuesday 7 January 2025

During these periods the email support service will be open as usual.

Alternatively, you can contact the national 24/7 Rape & Sexual Abuse Support Line on 0808 500 2222.

What is the live chat service?

If you need to talk, you can chat with one of our live chat volunteers during open hours.

It is an online service where you have up to 45 minutes to chat with one of our trained volunteers via text.

During the session, the volunteer will create a safe space for you to talk, and we will listen to whatever you want to say, at your pace. We will help you to find ways of expressing difficult feelings and to talk about difficult situations, without offering advice or telling you what to do.

We can ask questions and help you explore your options, and if you ask us for information about other forms of support, we can help provide this too.

Who is the service for?

Our live chat service is available for those who have been subjected to, or are being subjected to, any form of sexual violence and/or abuse, and who are:

  • women
  • girls
  • AFAB non-binary individuals
  • individuals who have experienced oppression as women

This includes women and girls who are trans.

It doesn’t matter when this abuse happened, whether recently or a long time ago, we are here for you.

The service is for these survivors of all ages, backgrounds and sexual orientation and who feel comfortable receiving support from a service that is run by women for women.

We are also here for woman, girl and AFAB non-binary supporters who are supporting these survivors, personally or professionally.

How do I start and end a chat?

You can start a chat by clicking the green ‘Chat live with us’ at the bottom right of your screen.

You can end a chat with us whenever you like, by clicking the cross at the top right of the chat box, and the window will disappear.

There will then be an optional survey that you can complete (see ‘Can I leave feedback/make a complaint?’ in the Frequently Asked Questions section below).

Open hours

  • Tuesdays 12.00pm – 1.30pm

Useful resources

Other support services

Queries

If you have any queries about the live chat service, please have a read through our FAQs below. If you don’t find the answer you need, you can contact us at:

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have opened the live chat page before the open hours and are waiting for the service to open, then you will need to refresh your page at the time the service opens in order to see the service is running.

We have taken extensive measures to protect your privacy. Our live chat service is an anonymous service.

You don’t have to give us your name or any identifying details about yourself. Because we don’t see any information about you, we have no way of recognising repeat service users. This means we will treat each conversation as individual and if you use the live chat service more than once we won’t be able to pick up conversations where we left off.

We do not have access to the IP address of the device you are using and, therefore, your location is unknown to us.

You can chat to us whenever we are open and each chat can be up to 45 minutes long.

If you contact us towards the end of our opening times, your chat may be shorter.

We ask that you only chat with us once a day.

If you contact us more that once over time, you will chat with different volunteers.

As we do not keep records of your chats, the volunteer will not be aware of what you have previously talked about.

You can talk to us about anything in complete confidence. We will never repeat anything you say outside of Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre.

We do discuss our live chat conversations confidentially with other volunteers and supervisors within the service. This is to encourage each other to deliver a good and consistent service. We ensure this information never reaches anyone else.

We do not report anything that is said to us to the police or any other outside body. Our Confidentiality, Data Protection and Sharing Information Policy is available for download if you want further information. If you are under 18, we will not pass along anything you say unless you tell us your full name and address, and ask us to report to the county safeguarding team on your behalf. We respect your right to make decisions about your own life.

We treat all forms of sexual abuse seriously and are here for you. It doesn’t matter if you’re not sure how to name it, if you don’t fully remember or if aren’t sure how you feel about it, we will listen and talk this through with you.

What you discuss with the volunteers during your live chat session is a private conversation.

We delete all transcripts of live chat conversations after seven days. This means that if you use the live chat service more than once, the volunteer you are chatting with will not be able to see your previous conversation history.

Our volunteers only speak to one person at a time, so when you join the live chat you may be places in a queue. One of our volunteers will let you know that they have seen that you are waiting.

As our chats can last 45 minutes, if the service is very busy it is possible you might not get through. We understand that this might feel difficult or disappointing and we encourage you to try again the next time we are open.

You can also send us an email via our email support service, try our helpline or use the national 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line’s live chat service , which is open to women and girls aged 16+.

Our live chat service is for women and girls.

While we recognise the experiences and pain of male survivors, here at Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre we have found that a women-only service provision is an invaluable environment for many female service users.

We recognise the need for specialist services for male survivors and more information about these services can be found here.

Our live chat service is available for those who have been subjected to, or are being subjected to, any form of sexual violence and/or abuse, and who are:

  • women
  • girls
  • AFAB non-binary individuals
  • individuals who have experienced oppression as women

This includes women and girls who are trans.

It doesn’t matter when this abuse happened, whether recently or a long time ago, we are here for you.

The service is for these survivors of all ages, backgrounds and sexual orientation and who feel comfortable receiving support from a service that is run by women for women.

We are also here for woman, girl and AFAB non-binary supporters who are supporting these survivors, personally or professionally.

We understand that it can be difficult to contact us if you’re not confident writing in English, and we will support you as best we can over live chat.

If you would like support from us in language other than English, please email us and tell us the language that you would like us to support you in and we will try to arrange this if we can, or suggest another organisation that may be able to help.

This page gives more advice on how to hide your tracks online. Please note, the information we provide is for guidance only and it may not be possible to completely hide your tracks.

Our volunteers will end a chat if they believe they are dealing with a prank or abusive user.

You are welcome to send us an email, letter or call us at the office (full contact details are available on the contact us page). Also, you can fill out our online feedback form if you want to give us more detailed feedback on your experiences of our service. If you have any issues with this form and/or would like to request a paper copy sent to you via post, please call our enquiries number 01223 313 551 or email contact@cambridgerapecrisis.org.uk

Any feedback we get is treated anonymously, whether it is good or bad, and helps us to improve our service. We do sometimes use anonymous comments in reports to our funders and supporters, so if you don’t want your comments to be used please tell us.

Finally, if you wish to make a formal complaint about the helpline service, our Service User Complaints Policy is available here.

Where else can I get support?

If you need to talk outside our open hours or our live chat is busy, you may want to contact the national rape crisis live chat service:

National 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line (Rape Crisis England & Wales)

National Live Chat Service: www.247sexualabusesupport.org.uk

The 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line is a free service that offers confidential emotional support, information and referral details for anyone aged 16+ in England and Wales who has been affected by rape, child sexual abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment or any other forms of sexual violence – at any point in their life.

This includes people who have been subjected to sexual violence themselves, as well as their friends, family or anyone else who is trying to support them.

Not sure what happened to you or if it ‘counts’? This service is for you too.

Their live chat service is open 24hrs, every day of the year.

For more information about the 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line click here.