Lincolnshire
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Victim Lincs is a service put in place by the Police and Crime Commissioner, providing victims of crime with invaluable help, support and guidance. Victim Lincs can refer you to Victim Support or other specialist coping and recovery services. Lines are open 8am – 4pm every week day.
Supportline
If you need support outside of our open hours, call our Supportline for free on 08 08 16 89 111 or request support via our website.
Get help from your local team
Call us
If you’ve been affected by crime, call the Victim Lincs team on 01522 212333. Lines are open 8am – 4pm every week day.
Victim Lincs is a service put in place by the Police and Crime Commissioner, providing victims of crime with invaluable help, support and guidance. If you are a victim of crime and would like further support, Victim Lincs can refer you to Victim Support or other specialist coping and recovery services.
If you need support outside of our open hours, call our Supportline for free on 08 08 16 89 111 or request support via our website.
Go online
As a result of the Coronavirus pandemic we have made our free live chat support service available 24/7.
Create a free account on My Support Space – an online resource containing interactive guides to help you manage the impact that crime has had on you.
We give emotional and practical help, we may advocate on your behalf, provide information advice and guidance, or sort out links to other agencies and sources of help. We provide this to those who have been affected by crime in Lincolnshire. We’re an independent charity and you can contact us for support regardless of whether you’ve contacted the police, and no matter how long ago the crime took place. Our service is victim-centred, so we’ll work with you in a structured way and assist you cope with the impact of crime.
We can provide immediate support over the telephone when we call you or when you call us. We’ll assess what your support needs are and our approach is about empowering people. We’ll develop a support plan with you and we will ensure that you are given the right support by the right service. This may be arranging a meeting for you to talk to us or another help agency, giving you information on criminal injuries compensation or advice on how to make your home more secure. It may also include providing a specialist trained caseworker to visit you. We may also refer you onto another support service that can give you specialist support for some or all of your needs.
You can self-refer to the service, or get in touch via our 24/7 live chat where a trained supporter can answers your initial queries or concerns. You can call us directly between 9am-5pm on 01522 212333.
The Castle Service is a Victim Support specialist service funded by the Lincolnshire PCC that provides direct support to children and young people under 18 years old who have been victims of rape and sexual abuse, child sexual exploitation, cybercrime and more – whether current or historic.
On average, victims are offered an average of six weeks of intervention wellbeing support. This includes work on worries, managing emotions, healthy relationships, consent, safe sex and self-esteem. We do not offer counselling, but can signpost to other partner agencies. CHISVAs can also offer limited advocacy in education, housing and more.
The Castle Service CHISVAs also provide a specialised outreach service for young victims who are attending court. This Queen’s Award-winning element involves explaining the process of going to court, working with the Witness Service/Witness Care to organise pre-trial visits to court, attending court with the victim on the day and post-court support to review the outcome and experience.
What Is a CHISVA?
A CHISVA is a Children’s Independent Sexual Violence Advisor. They are trained in working with victims and survivors of any form of sexual violence.
As a team, we have completed lots of other training in order to help as much as we can including suicide awareness, supporting trans and non-binary children and young people, s28 training, domestic abuse and more.
The Castle Service CHISVAs won’t talk about the crime itself – that is not for us – but we talk about the impact it is had on you. We help you think about how you are coping and how you can keep well and healthy in the future.
We have all joined Victim Support because we are caring people who want to help you. We are all professionally trained and we are all committed to giving you the best advice we can and to be there for you.
It is important to remember that CHISVAs are not counsellors, detectives or social workers. They will happily signpost you to the appropriate professional to help with an issue if it is not in their area of expertise.
Referrals
Referrals can be made via Victim Lincs, EMCYPSAS, schools, social care, other agencies or self-referral.
Once we have picked up a referral and it is added to our system, we will send you a confirmation text within 24 hours to let you know. The case will then be assigned to a CHISVA and they will make contact with you within 48 hours.
If you have made a referral or been referred and have not heard back from us, please send an email to castleproject@victimsupport.org.uk or call our main office on 01522 212333.
If you have not heard from your CHISVA while support is ongoing, please also send an email to the mentioned inbox.
Contacting Us
If you want to chat with a member of our team, email us at castleproject@victimsupport.org.uk or call our office on 01522 212333.
We love hearing from our clients, parents and professionals. Feel free to get in touch to provide feedback at any point during or after your support.
FAQs
Q: Are CHISVAs specially trained?
A: Yes! All CHISVAs have completed training as adult Independent Sexual Violence Advisors and add-on training to specifically work with children.
Anyone that works at Victim Support also completes lots of interesting and helpful training such as domestic violence, safeguarding, cultural awareness and inclusion and more.
Q: What if I haven’t reported to the police?
A: Everyone deals with crime in their own way, and sometimes that means not reporting to the police. We will work with clients whether they have reported or not. If you’d like, we can discuss the processes with you so you can make an informed decision.
Q: What happens when I turn 18?
A: When you turn 18 years old, you will be referred into the adult service for sexual violence called Spring Lodge. Your CHISVA can arrange a meeting with you, them and your new ISVA so you feel as comfortable as possible.
Q: Will you tell anyone what we talk about?
A: Everything between a client and a CHISVA is completely confidential, so it stays between you and them. If your CHISVA ever thinks you’re at risk of harm, or someone else might be, then they will need to speak to a safeguarding officer here at Victim Support and your trusted adult.
Q: Who supports my CHISVA?
A: All CHISVAs are supported by their team, managers and a clinical supervisor. They have the chance to speak about anything that may be worrying them, every 4 – 6 weeks for 1.5 hours, in a confidential environment with a trained professional.
What Our Clients Have Said
“I just want to say you’ve helped me a lot, before our very first session I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror, now I don’t have to cover them.”
“I always feel heard with you and you don’t make me feel like I’m dramatic. Thank you for everything and being there for me and standing up for me. I’m so grateful to have you.”
“Since I met you, you’re my favourite person in the world.”
Have Your Say
If you would like to give us feedback at any point, you can here:
If you decided to not continue with the service, we’d still love to hear from you. Get in touch. All feedback is anonymous and used by our team to find ways to improve our service.
Last year we offered immediate support to over 4,100 people affected by crime in Lincolnshire, and gave in-depth support to nearly 1,200 people.
“As a volunteer, I can give victims time.”
Before he retired, Jim was a senior officer with Lincolnshire Police. Since then he’s become one of Victim Support’s most hard-working volunteers, spending up to 120 hours a month helping victims of crime.
“As a police officer I was an evidence gatherer – that was my focus. I’d briefly meet victims but I never had the time to really sit and listen to them. Now, as a volunteer with Victim Support, I can give victims that time, whether it’s five minutes or an hour – whatever they need, because people respond to crime in many different ways.
“After I retired, I wanted to have something to get bed out for. I chose Victim Support because it was linked to my police work, but it gave me the chance to ‘go behind the scenes’ and find out how crime affects victims. Victim Support trained me in how to approach victims, how to build their trust. It’s all about listening and being open, saying, ‘I don’t have a magic wand, I can’t make the crime go away, but let’s start talking and see where the conversation takes us.’
“I’ve developed many new skills as a Victim Support volunteer. After six months of supporting victims of low level crime, I applied for various specialised courses and was interviewed by my manager to check I was suitable. Over the last eight years I’ve been trained in sexual violence, domestic violence, homicide, hate crime and restorative justice. I’ve recently become qualified to work with children and young people and I’ve just completed a course on supporting people with autism. These days, most of my volunteering work lies in specialised cases.
“Sometimes cases aren’t all they seem. I went to see a woman and her son, initially because the boy was being bullied. There was something about what he said about his mother’s partner that just didn’t sit right with me. Because of my training with Victim Support, I sensed there’d been domestic violence. It turned out that I was right: what started as a school bullying case turned into something very different. My manager and I referred the case on and eventually the woman came back and thanked us personally. If it hadn’t been for my training in domestic violence, I wouldn’t have spotted the problem, and I wouldn’t have carried out the work I did.
“Volunteering can be extremely rewarding. I dealt with a homicide case recently. When I visited the family member involved, it seemed like he had given up on everything. His mail – bills, mortgage reminders – was scattered all over his living room. I started helping him manage his everyday affairs. I wrote to various companies to explain what had happened and two companies wrote back to say they had written his debts off. I felt like drinking champagne – I was elated!
“I get tremendous support from my Victim Support manager Jenny. If I have evening visits, which is rarely, I text her when I arrive and when I leave. Jenny manages my workload: I spend between 80 and 120 hours a month volunteering with Victim Support, and from time to time I’ll ask her if I can have a break – no new cases for a month – and she’ll make sure it happens. We have a review every three months and she calls me regularly to check how my cases are progressing and check on my wellbeing. It’s important to get this level of support, as cases can be harrowing.
“Victim Support is important because it’s independent. The most significant thing we do is go to a victim and say, ‘I’m not the police, I’m not social services, I’m here to listen and give free confidential advice.’ The barriers come down immediately and people start to talk. We help victims find the strength when crime comes into their life. I’m proud to be part of that.”
Other specialist services exist in Lincolnshire and all can be contacted through the Victim Lincs gateway on 01522 212333.
We work with a number of partner organisations in Lincolnshire to make sure you get the support you need.
Find out more about some of the services and organisations we work with:
LRC is a specialist support service for women and girls in Lincolnshire who have experienced any form of sexual violence, at any point in their lives.
- EDAN (previously LIDAS, Women’s Aid and other Domestic Abuse providers)
EDAN exists to offer aid to help women, men and children who experience abuse within a domestic and/or intimate relationship. It provides a gender-neutral outreach service and structured group work for men, women and children and access to county refuges.
Restorative Solutions works in partnership with a multitude of local organisations and police forces, including Victim Support. It aims to reduce harm and resolve conflict by enabling the victim to correspond or meet with an offender should they wish to.
