More than two million women in Australia have experienced sexual assault, says the new Personal Safety Survey from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
According to ANROWS, the national women's safety research organisation, one in two survivors said there had been a time when survivors needed support but could not access it.
One new organisation offering support is The Survivor Hub, founded in 2021 by survivor Anna Coutts-Trotter, with two friends Gemma and Brenda. The Survivor Hub was developed to offer peer support for those with lived experience of sexual assault.
The organisation has both in-person and online MeetUps for survivors to talk, share their experiences of dealing with a system mostly unsympathetic to sexual assault survivors. Sessions run fortnightly.
Coutts-Trotter, the daughter of Minister for the Environment Tanya Plibersek and senior NSW public servant Michael Coutts-Trotter, says there are very strict group rules: "Privacy. Respectful language. Not sharing explicit details of experiences, instead focusing on the healing process and aftermath."
Each session has a facilitator and a trained social worker or counsellor attending who can intervene - but mostly it's been a supported way for survivors to recover.
"There are so many different experiences, you will find the one person who has had a similar experience to yours," Coutts-Trotter said.
Canberra psychology student and assault survivor Samantha says the MeetUps make a huge difference to her wellbeing.
"The best part of it was being able to connect with other people with the same lived experience," she says. "My recovery has been very good with a lot of help from The Survivor Hub."
Samantha says the other benefit was meeting people who have been through the court system.
"There is so little information out there about how it all works," she said.
