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Support Groups, Message Boards and Chatrooms for Survivors of Abuse

Disclaimer: DVRCV provides this page as a guide to some of the options available. This does not mean we endorse or recommend any of these groups, chat rooms or websites.

Support groups currently running in Victoria:

A range of support groups exists in Victoria for people who have experienced domestic violence or sexual abuse. These groups offer people an opportunity to discuss their experiences with others who have shared similar experiences, and to learn from each other.

Some groups are facilitated by professionals who work at a community organisation (for example, a Community Health Centre, or a Centre Against Sexual Assault). The role of these facilitators is to organise and set up the group, and to make sure everyone gets an opportunity to contribute. Other groups are self-help, which means that the group is run by participants who have personal experiences of abuse themselves.

Some groups are held over a specific time-frame. They might meet once a week for a period of 10 weeks, for example. Others are on-going, and may meet regularly for years.

Most support groups for people who have experienced violence are run through community health centres or local neighbourhood houses. Please see the listing of Victorian support groups in our newsletter (updated quarterly), or phone DVRCV on (03) 9486-9866 for local numbers.

For information on individual counselling services see services contacts list.

Online support: Chat rooms, bulletin board forums and email lists

The good thing about online support groups and chat rooms is that you can communicate with people any time, day or night, and you can be anonymous, which may help you to feel more comfortable to say what you feel. Often you get to communicate with people from around the world. But this anonymity can make things difficult, as you don't really know if people are who they say they are.

There is a number of chat rooms and bulletin or message board forums on the internet. A bulletin or message board is where people put (or 'post') messages on a particular topic onto the website 'board' for others to read. When you visit the message board website, you see a list of the messages that others have posted on different subjects and you can click on them to read, respond or add your own messages. Email lists are when messages are sent directly to you via your email address, and you send your messages back to the email addresses of all of the other people in the email list.

A chat room is different to these other methods, in that you communicate with anyone else who is in the chat room in 'real time', i.e. they are on the internet at the same time as you, so they can send messages back to you instantly. Moderated forums or chat rooms mean that the operator who runs the room or forum should check the messages people put on the forum to make sure that they are relevant and not abusive. Many chat rooms provide rules or guidelines which help everyone to understand the purpose of the chat room. Also, be very wary about giving out personal details to anyone, including your Internet Service Provider email address, because these emails are often sent to your home computer, and can show your name. A popular web-based email service to use instead is www.hotmail.com - here you can get an email address that you can use from any computer, and you can set up an anonymous email address. You can make up a user name. (You can also use MSN Messenger service through hotmail, which enables you to create an address book of contacts to chat to when they are online). See below for more on safety on the internet.

Chat room discussions can feel more 'immediate' and therefore more 'intense' than bulletin boards. Very personal issues are often discussed. When you 'enter' the chat room, it can feel like walking in on someone else's discussion. But mostly chat participants are friendly and will greet you when you enter. If you just want to observe the discussion and not add comments yourself, that's usually ok. To use some chat rooms, you may need to download particular software. The instructions for this are usually provided by the chat room or chat service.

#Survivors on the net is a self help group for adult survivors of all all forms of child abuse. The UK based site has links to message forums and chat. For the chat, instructions are provided, including how to download the mIRC chat program. They also have email lists and a message board (including an email list for partners of survivors). www.survivors.org.uk/

Broken Spirits Network is a group based in the USA that focuses on aiding both current and past victims of child abuse, sexual abuse, and domestic violence. The bulletin boards are for women and men. They also have live chat forums, for which you need to register. This site provides useful discussions about internet safety (http://www.brokenspirits.com/security/). For the bulletin boards, see
www.brokenspirits.com/board/

Sibling Abuse Forums . 'Sibling abuse' is abuse by a brother or a sister. Developed by an Australian survivor of sibling abuse, this is a message board dedicated to the survivors (as well as those still experiencing) sibling abuse, as well as their supporters.
http://negative0.net/saf/about.htm

About.com: abuse/incest (an American website) has chat rooms for survivors of incest or other forms of abuse or domestic violence. Instructions are provided for using the chat service software, and also guidelines on what's ok and what's not. incestabuse.about.com/mpchat.htm .

Rainbow Hope: for lesbian survivors .
Rainbow Hope is a site for lesbian survivors of child abuse and domestic violence. Contains info on various subjects related to lesbians and abuse, domestic violence, partners and sexuality, etc. Provides a message board and chat room for lesbian survivors and their partners. URL: www.rainbowhope.org

Recovery Canada - The Wellness Network - Survivors Support Forums. Provides online support to survivors of sexual abuse through bulletin-board style discussions. There are many different forums for survivors, including public forums, small groups, topical discussions, a women survivors forum, and a forum for supporters. Before joining you need to email the operators with information about yourself and your experiences, and accept a forum users agreement. Discussions are monitored to ensure that messages are supportive and there is no 'flaming' (or abusing) other members. The site also provides a collection of useful and practical articles for survivors.www.vansondesign.com/
RecoveryCanada/SAResources.html

Women in Crisis Forum
The initiator of this site is a former victim of abuse. This site focuses on non-physical forms of domestic violence. Provides public and private forums for discussion. http://www.womenincrisis.info/

 

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Safety on the internet

For information on protecting your safety if you share a computer with someone who is abusing you, see Technology Safety Tips

 

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