Student and Young People’s Support (SYP)
The SYP Service offers counselling support to students and young people. We were previously know as the STAR project and the Student Survivors Project but have joined to form one support service.
Who do we support?
- The SYP service supports students and young people who have experienced any kind of sexual harm, something that you didn’t want, didn’t feel okay or made you feel uncomfortable. This could have happened in-person or online, recently or when you were a younger child.
- We support college and university students in Edinburgh, East Lothian, West Lothian and Midlothian as well as young people of all genders, aged 12+ who live in in Edinburgh, East Lothian and Midlothian.
- We recognise that there are different barriers to accessing support and we will work with you to provide an inclusive and accessible space.
What can SYP offer?
- We will listen to you, believe you and support you.
- When you get in touch with us, we will arrange an introductory meeting which is an opportunity for us get to know each other, for you to hear more about the service and for us to find out how we can best support you at this time. You can bring someone with you to this meeting if you’d feel more comfortable. This can be a family member, a friend or anyone you trust.
- We can offer emotional and practical support sessions where you can use the time in any way you choose, this can be up to 18 sessions.
- We can offer sessions in person, via video or over the phone.
- Support sessions last for 50 minutes and happen at the same time each week.
- Our therapeutic support provides you with a space where you can talk about yourself, your life, what’s happened to you and your thoughts and feelings.
- We realise that talking can sometimes feel hard. Our therapeutic support can help you to explore your feelings and experiences using creative ways such as art making, music, writing and more.
- We also offer support to family, friends, and partners of young people who have experienced any form of sexual harm. Find out more here.
Getting in touch
- To arrange an introductory meeting with us all you need to do is email us on hello@ercc.scot saying you are interested in finding out more about support.
- You can also contact us this through this secure webform.
- If you prefer someone else can get in touch with us on your behalf to arrange the meeting.
- If the incident happened within the past 28 days, please let us know this. Find out more information about recent rape or sexual assault here.
- If the incident happened within the past 7 days and you are considering reporting to the police now or later on, please find more information here.
- If you are a professional wanting to refer someone you are supporting, please include this referral form in your email.
Confidentially
- Everything you share with your SYP counselling support practitioner is confidential within ERCC.
- To ensure yours and other’s safety, we follow safeguarding guidelines. This means there may be times where we have to share information if we think that you, or a child, young person or vulnerable adult is at risk of serious harm. For more information, please see ERCC’s confidentiality policy.
- If we need to share your information, we will always try to talk to you about this first.
Accessibility and Intersectionality
ERCC and the SYP team are committed to taking an intersectional approach to the support we provide. We recognise that marginalised groups face significant barriers to getting the help they deserve. We will work with you to provide an inclusive and accessible space.
