Reading Rising Free - I am a survivor who is still standing and figuring out how to reclaim my life

Reading Rising Free has helped me to understand how I feel about what happened to me and the things I’ve been dealing with.

Reading Rising Free has made me feel seen and heard from seeing my feelings and thoughts being validated through other people’s stories.

I’m so grateful to have found this resource at the Rape Crisis Centre and so thankful this was created as it’s so important.

I’ve found reading this to be a really powerful experience, and it’s been a really empowering journey through Rising Free to realise that I’m not as isolated or as alone as I’d thought. Knowing this has helped me immensely.

I have also learned that I’m not just a victim of this violence but I am a survivor who is still standing and figuring out how to reclaim my life for myself. This book is proof to me that despite all the darkness you face and must fight through, there is hope at the end of the tunnel. People do survive this, they do take their control back and can move on from this devastating crime. This is something I once thought was impossible but Rising Free has shown me that you can move on and forwards and this will be a part of you but not all of you and your life. You can take your power back. Finding this resource has given me so much hope and a light in the darkness and made me feel like I can move forwards in my own journey. I’m so thankful to the crisis centre for being there and making resources like this. You are a brilliant and life changing service.

Rising Free to me is like a bible for survivors of sexual trauma, you gain so much from it.

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Survivors tell us being able to tell their story, to speak their truth, whether through words, music, art, whatever means feels authentic and safe for each survivor, helps lessen the shame, stigma and sense of aloneness they have carried, and often felt silenced by, perhaps for many years.

Rising Free is a deeply moving anthology of creative writing by seven survivors who have used our services. It is about survival, healing, finding your voice and calling for change. The contributions in Rising Free are intended to share strength and voice with other survivors. It honours the power of survivor stories in creating change, both individually and societally.

Copies of Rising Free, are available by donation from our centre or can be posted out for a donation, plus £3 postage and packaging. Please email info@ercc.scot if you would like a copy.