Safe Space
In the spring of 2024, Centrs Dardedze, together with several people who have experienced sexual abuse, launched the initiative “Safe Space” – a movement for adult women and men who experienced any form of sexual abuse in their childhood and want to support themselves and others.
Many people who were sexually abused in childhood only become aware of what happened and its impact years later. We are not always ready to seek professional support immediately. We might look online for others’ experiences or write our own story to another survivor who speaks openly about what they went through. Maybe we attend therapy. Or perhaps we haven’t told anyone yet.
We want to create a place where you can acknowledge your past, draw strength from people with similar experiences, and maybe even help make the world safer for today’s children. You can participate actively, or you can simply join and be present, just listening. You decide.
How it works:
- We meet once a month, usually online, but sometimes at our centre Dardedze.
- Meetings take place in the evening and last 1.5 hours.
- Together we choose a discussion topic, invite an expert on that topic, listen to a presentation and then discuss it. Sometimes we also invite participants to share ideas on how to educate the public.
- You can join with your camera off and with a nickname, and you also don’t have to speak if you don’t want to – it’s entirely up to you.
- This is not a therapeutic group, but rather an opportunity to learn something new, reflect, and feel that you are not alone.
If you want to join the Safe Space group, write to drosatelpa@centrsdardedze.lv. Participation in the movement is anonymous.
P.S. You can also ease the heavy burden of silence by taking part in the international survey “Our Voice” – fill in the anonymous questionnaire and help society better understand survivors’ experiences: https://www.ourvoicesurvey.com/survey/latvian