Not The Only One will be delivering survivor community spaces at LSE. These spaces are open to LSE students of any gender who have experienced any form of sexual violence; including sexual abuse in childhood. It will be run by a team of experienced survivor facilitators, and it will be a place to come together for mutual support, to share experiences or just to have a chat. It will be confidential, and you can participate as much or as little as you want to.
There will be two survivor community spaces in the Autumn term, two in the Winter term and one in the Spring term.
The dates for the Winter Term are:
- Monday 19th February: 6.00 - 7.30pm
- Monday 11th March: 6.00 - 7.30pm
Registration
To sign up to attend this community space, please fill out this form.
FAQs
We use 'survivor' as a common shorthand for a wide range of experiences, but we recognise that not everyone who has experienced sexual abuse might use 'survivor' as a self-description. Students who have experienced any form of sexual abuse at any time in their life are welcome. This can include things that happened in childhood or more recently. It could have been ongoing or happened once. It could include things that at the time you didn't realise were sexual abuse. If you are not sure whether your experience qualifies as sexual abuse, you are welcome to join anyway to learn more.
The short answer: No.
You will never be asked to share anything about what happened. The focus is on dealing with issues we have as survivors in the here and now. That being said, of course past experiences can come up and attending survivor spaces can sometimes bring up memories. There will usually have a grounding activity at the end which can help dealing with anything that might have been triggering.
The facilitators ask everyone who is attending to be there from the beginning. The space is usually opened 5 minutes before the start time, both for online and in person events; and there is always an agreement on a working alliance at the beginning of each event, to create a safe and supportive space. The facilitators therefore can't let people in about five minutes after the start time.
That is completely normal. The initiative facilitators have been there themselves! They know from their own experience and from other students that it gets easier with time. Here is what students who have attended some of their recent events want you to know:
- "It’s okay to be nervous attending!"
- "You won't feel pressured to share anything you don't want to. You can share as much as you feel comfortable with. I didn't think I would feel as comfortable as I did. It was so nice speaking with people that understood."
- "There is no pressure to talk about anything you don’t want to and it’s nice to be in a safe environment free of judgement. You get to learn new things and share advice that I found very helpful. Getting to meet people that have experienced something similar has helped me feel more understood."
If you have further queries you can contact either: