MP’s praise for abuse victim support group
STOCKPORT MP Ann Coffey visited the base of a support line which helps people who have been abused as children.
Ms Coffey went to the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), which is based in Stockport and in London.
NAPAC is a national charity which offers support to adults who suffered any type of childhood abuse, whether physical, sexual or emotional or neglect.
During her visit, Ann met some of the NAPAC volunteers, who take calls from survivors.
She said: “NAPAC is a small charity, with very few paid staff.
“It is doing a really amazing job in supporting thousands of survivors of child abuse across the country.
“The dedicated volunteers I met are well trained and clearly get great satisfaction from helping people, some of whom may be talking to someone for the first time about their childhood experiences, but NAPAC needs more volunteers so they can answer more calls.”
Sam Booth, NAPAC’s support line manager, said: “We’ve got a great team here, but we’re busier than ever, so we need donations and more volunteers.
“We answered more than 8,000 calls and support emails last year, but there were nearly 90,000 call attempts.
“We provide extensive training to our volunteers before they take calls and we look after them through our model of live supervision and support.
“There’s something really special when someone takes that first step of talking about what they suffered as a child, we know they’re on the road to recovery.”
To find out more about being a NAPAC volunteer, visit napac.org.uk/ volunteering.
NAPAC’s free and confidential support line is 0808 801 0331.