Updates/News

You can follow immediate news items of interest via our twitter feed. We will also post notices here where twitter feed would not be appropriate or suitable.

♥♥♥

Please Note: Dated 9^th June 2026 - CIS'ters Downsized Due to Financial Shortfall

As our 500+ Members will know, we had to move out of our office at the end of March 2026, to much smaller premises. For the moment our services are restricted to:

Maintaining our website – which is providing information for anyone who has been directly or indirectly impacted by sexual abuse, as children
Maintaining provision of emotional support, via email, to our 500 current Members.
Continue to raise public awareness of the existence of sexual abuse during childhood, and particularly those for who our charity was initially set up ie adult females who were sexually abused/exploited/ raped within a family environment, as female children.
Ensure that our small national charity will continue to survive.
We are hopeful that as the current UK economic situation eases, funding may become available and we are monitoring this situation quarterly as part of our trust board meeting and responsibilities.

Please help if you can by going to CIS'ters page 'Ways You Can Donate' where you will be able to see the many ways in which you can help us to continue with our much need information and support services. Or, you can click on the Donate Button which you will find on the top right hand side of our website.

'Our Vision & Mission' - 'Our History'

_{Gillian - Founder of CIS'ters}

Please Note: Dated April 2026 – Sexual Violence Sector Facing Critical Financial Issues!

We are an organisational Member of The Survivors Trust. This is a national umbrella organisation that we helped set up in 2000, which promotes best practice response to victim/survivors of sexual crimes; and lobbies on behalf of Member Organisations with government departments for funding and to raise key issues.

In recent months TST has highlighted that a number of TST member agencies across UK & Ireland are facing critical shortfalls in funding. The agencies, which usually deliver services in a local area only, are responding in a number of ways, including closing waiting lists, adapting delivery, and in some instances, closing services.

CIS’ters continues to monitor the situation and sends our best wishes to all those affected. Meanwhile we are focused on maintaining our own service, within funding challenges.

♥♥♥

Mark O'Sullivan's address at the 'ACT on IICSA' Event in Westminster on 13th November 2025. (ACT on IICSA monitors government action and inaction in response to the Inquiry's recommendations, engages directly with departments such as the Home Office, Department for Education, Department of Health and Social Care, and Ministry of Justice, and provides transparent public updates on progress).

Mark O'Sullivan's Address

Three years of inaction is enough. On 20th October 2025, it was 3 years since the Independent Inquiry into Childhood Sexual Abuse published its report (from the 7 years of work and 7000 survivor testimonies) and made 20 recommendations to help prevent sexual abuse, and help support victims.

Not one recommendation has been delivered, and in those 3 years there will have been an estimated 1.5 million new victims - children sexually abused for the first time. Children deserve better. Survivors deserve justice. Please watch and share this film: The Elephant in the Room

This is a Public Health Emergency!

Write to your MP: Here’s a template that you’re welcome to tweak. Find your MP here

♥♥♥

November 2025 - Very sad news to hear about the passing of Baroness Helen Newlove, the Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales. She understood the issues completely. The Baroness was a tireless advocate for victims, who boldly challenged justice agencies to treat victims with the compassion, decency and respect they deserve.

Statement from the Office of the Victims' Commissioner's Website

♥♥♥

August 2025 - Three of the UK’s leading sexual violence charities; The Survivors Trust, Rape Crisis England & Wales,
and We Are Survivors; have today warned that vital services are on the brink of closure unless the
Government urgently commits to sustainable funding.

In an open letter to the Home Secretary and the Lord Chancellor, the organisations, including CIS'ters, alongside over 70
other frontline and membership services, say that without action, tens of thousands of survivors of rape
and sexual abuse will be left without the specialist support they need to cope and recover.

Despite their life-saving work, many of these community-based services face an uncertain future,
threatening the support they currently offer for the majority of survivors who never report to the police
or engage with statutory services:

The Press Release

Collaborative letter to the Home Secretary

Collaborative letter to the Lord Chancellor