A CITY music festival has raised more than £4,000 to help launch a support service for children who have suffered sexual abuse.
Organisers of the Worcester Music Festival have recently revealed that this year’s event raised £4,148 for the Worcestershire Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre (WRSASC), to take the first steps in creating a much needed specialist counselling service for children aged 11 and over.
The money raised through collections during the three day celebration of live and original music in September, was handed over in a cheque presentation by festival Chairman, Ant Robbins to Siân Patterson, policy and sustainability officer for WRSASC, at Worcester Arts Workshop on Saturday (October 17).
The new service will build on WRSASC’s free, confidential and non-judgemental support service for individuals aged over 16 who have experienced rape or sexual abuse at any time in their lives, which the charity has provided since 1986.
The eighth annual festival took place in scores of diverse venues, with around 250 new and emerging artists from across the UK taking part.
Since the festival was launched in 2008 it has raised more than £40,000 for charity.
Ms Patterson said: “We’re absolutely overwhelmed and delighted with the amount of money raised for us by Worcester Music Festival.
“It will enable us to purchase all of the facilities and furnishings for the counselling rooms, so we can create an appropriate, comfortable and friendly environment specific to the clients of our newly launched children’s counselling service.
“It will also allow us to buy the resources needed to aid these counselling sessions and outreach work over the next year, which is brilliant.
“Our experience of working with the festival prior to and during the weekend was fantastic, and they put a huge amount of effort into raising awareness of our service, which is invaluable and hugely appreciated.
“All in all it was a fabulous weekend. We can’t thank the team, the bands and those who donated enough.”
Mr Robbins said: “We saw an outpouring of generosity at this year’s festival, with audiences across our venues showing great support for this cause to help set-up a vital service.”
Visit www.wmrsasc.org.uk for more information.
