A community committed to sexual violence prevention
Katie Russell
CEO and Co-Founder of Support After Rape and Sexual Violence Leeds (SARSVL)
Social justice is what gets me out of bed in the morning.
Katie Russell first got a taste for social activism while she was a student at the University of Leeds.
During her time here, she performed in and directed multiple productions of Eve Ensler’s ‘Vagina Monologues’ for international V-Day campaigns. She was later elected as Women’s Officer for Leeds University Union and she ran a Violence against Women and Girls awareness campaign on campus.
Soon after finishing university, Katie joined the Rape Crisis movement and helped develop a new umbrella body for Rape Crisis Centres nationally – Rape Crisis England & Wales (RCEW) – becoming one of its first trustees.
As an intersectional feminist, I am not free while any woman is unfree.
Katie has spent over 20 years working in sexual violence prevention and social activism, making an impact both locally and nationally. Through her work she’s witnessed how sexual violence and abuse disproportionately impact women and girls. On top of this, racially minoritised, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ women and girls face even greater barriers to criminal justice and support.
Katie passionately believes that everyone deserves access to the support that they need to heal and move forward positively with their lives. She is committed to fighting for this and aims to live out her activism and intersectional feminist values through her work.
SARSVL is a small Leeds-based charity with big ambitions.
In 2009, Katie co-founded Support After Rape & Sexual Violence Leeds (SARSVL), the specialist Rape Crisis Centre in Leeds. She volunteered at the charity for 12 years before becoming its CEO three years ago.
SARSVL provide a range of specialist, survivor-centred support and advocacy services for women, girls and non-binary people who have experienced any form of sexual violence in their lives. This includes an emotional support helpline, an Independent Sexual Violence Advocacy (ISVA) service for those who want to report to the police, as well as short- and long-term, one-to-one, and group-based counselling and therapy.
Katie's next focus at SARSVL is to develop an outreach project to improve access to support services for sex workers and survivors of street homelessness in our local community.
When someone confides in you about their experiences of sexual violence or abuse, listen to them, believe them, and support them to make the decisions that feel right for them.
Whatever kind of support a survivor wants or needs, it’s important to put the control back into their hands and to give them a voice. SARSVL may be a small, local charity, but the impact they have on people’s lives in our community is enormous.
To support the work that Katie and SARSVL do in helping our Leeds community, you can donate, fundraise or volunteer at SARSVL.
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