Organisations Come Together in Rotherham To Tackle Abuse

Issues around domestic abuse and sexual exploitation amongst teenagers are being discussed in Rotherham.

Support workers from local and national charities, including Women's Aid, AVA and Chilypep are coming together for a special conference to raise awareness and share ideas about how to improve services.

They'll also get to hear from victims and survivors who've recorded their experiences.

It's been set up by Karan Sanghera who's from Rotherham Women's Refuge .

She said:

"Really we're there to learn as much as anyone else. People can't be categorised them into 'you've been a victim of this or that' you have to look at people with all their layers and sometimes you might need more than one person helping.

"We've invited a range of different organisations to come along and really provoke different ways of thinking in order to tackle these issues. It would be wrong to say it hasn't happened in Rotherham, but it is equally wrong to say it only happens in Rotherham. The reason we're hosting this is because we want to be seen to be taking this seriously and to really promote change."

It's why we've been speaking to a young woman who didn't want to be named after she was in an abusive relationship as a teen.

She now volunteers for a local project, Against Violence and Abuse, which aims to give young people like her a voice and she wants others to know there is support out there.

She said:

"When I look back over the last five years I was a totally different person. I didn't care about anything. I was drunk all the time. I didn't want to remember anything. But now I've got more support, I've got better friends and I've got my son to think about.

"It's hard to imagine how I was before; how down I was and how life didn't mean anything to me. But now I look to the future and I'm actually happy.

"People need to be more aware of what's out there. Once they're in the support it needs to be more consistent without any gaps. People need to feel like they can trust organisations."