Participación en el Concurso de Jardinería:

which doing the training course was like kind o f the icing on the cake for like getting your own stuff sorted?

Yes. (pause) yeah I suppose it was in a lot o f ways. Because it just felt like at one point, which a long time ago, I wasn't sure I would ever sort my own 'ead out. But by then I'd sorted my stuff out to do with abuse and things like that. And I suppose in some ways it's like I know there's no right and w rong way to look at things. But there's a comfortable way to look at things, a way to look at things that other women were agreeing with. Yeah. In a feminist sort of a way.

Yes.

Things like it's not your fault and all those kinds of issues. And that was quite nice to be with other women w ho thought that. But then you start puttin' it into practice and talk to other women about it. It certainly felt like (pause) it was a good way, the Rape Crisis thing was a good way o f thinking. I'm trying to think of a bloody word (pause) not confidence booster, but it's a word like that, (pause) It was (pause) I suppose it made me feel better. It made me feel good cos I thought I can use this and do something with it. I really have sorted it out, it isn't that I think I sorted it out I really have sorted it out.

Right.

I'd done work with other people and work on my own on my own stuff. The training group certainly felt like ‘ye p I'm really there’. I'm able, ready and able, to talk about this w ithout going ‘ooooo my life's terrible’.

Rape Crisis Centres draw a distinction between those women still in significant distress who may be in need of considerable support, and those survivors who are not in crisis but who wish to support others in a similar situation to one in which they had been in the past. Root and Davies (1995) found that Centres were appreciative of the phenomenon of volunteers coming forward who were in need o f counselling or who were using the training course as a way of dealing with their own distress. All Centres are aware of the need to deal with this issue sensitively. Disclosure o f abuse histories is explicitly required by some Centres, implicitly required by some and genuinely not sought by others. Some Centres have developed specific policies regarding survivor status, although most deal with each survivor according to her unique situation. No Centre assumes that if no disclosure occurs that no abuse had occurred. The need to develop appropriate supervisory practices as part of the initial training in addition to on-going support has been recognised by many Centres. This is frequently provided by existing volunteers on a one-to-one or group basis, as already noted. Centres generally do not have the resources to provide formal external supervision.

Interleaved with the concern to provide the necessary space for the personal development o f all trainees is the recognition that volunteer training must include a variety o f relevant theories and techniques. A wide range of issues is considered pertinent for Rape Crisis work. Training courses have grown up in response to local circumstances although there seems to be considerable ‘convergent evolution'. Almost all Centres include the following areas of concern as part of their initial counsellor training: counselling and

listening skills, both telephone and face-to-face; police and court procedures and the law; health issues, including HIV/Aids and women’s bodies; issues of sexual abuse and violence, including child sexual abuse. Other topics vary between Centres according to local needs and knowledges.

Although the focus tends to be on the development of counselling skills many Centres (67%) did identify a need for further provision of training in management skills, fund-raising, training for trainers and personal development skills. More specialist provision relevant to developing skills of working with people from diverse cultures was seen as required. Root and Davies (1995, p. 16) suggest that there is often ‘a gap between equal opportunities rhetoric and reality’. For example, whilst their quantitative data suggested a high level of concern with anti-racist practice, during qualitative interviews it became apparent that ‘in some cases it was little more than sympathy with the principles of anti-racism which were not being transferred to the working practices of the Centre’. They found little recognition that it might be necessary to move beyond the specific targeting of publicity materials and begin to provide services in different ways according to the needs of particular groups.

No Rape Crisis Centre training carries recognised accreditation. However, Root and Davies (1995) found that 65% of respondents indicated that a formal counselling qualification would be useful. The National Federation is keen to investigate the possibility of accreditation as a way to recognise skills, structure staff development and facilitate the retention of volunteers. However,

the issue o f accreditation is complex as the following quotation from a Rape Crisis worker illustrates:

1 think the women who work for rape lines put in an enormous number of hours and have lots of skills and expertise which is often unrecognised/discounted in job interviews or public attention. A national qualification would help validate our work and skills. It might also help in funding applications . . . It [an accredited qualification] might not be able to recognise the diverse skills women have and a central qualification might ignore local specific needs/achievements.

Amanda Root and Sue Davies (1995, p. 17, quoting a Rape Crisis worker)

There has been some concern that accreditation may lead to women volunteering merely in order to get the qualification rather than out o f a genuine desire to work with survivors (there is anecdotal evidence o f this already occurring even without accreditation). This is a difficulty for those Centres that are concerned to 'weed out’ volunteers who see Rape Crisis work as a way to enhance their employment prospects. However, other Centres take the view that whether or not a woman becomes a volunteer the training is of use to her and the community in which she lives. And, as Linden West (1996) reminds us, the distinction between career and personal motivations to undertake training is not clear-cut. Perhaps a more important concern is that accreditation may alter the nature of the training. Accreditation raises issues of who has the right to define what is counselling, how it should be taught and what should constitute good practice. Accreditation may not fit comfortably with the feminist concerns that underpin the very existence of Rape Crisis Centres.

ln 1993, 81% of Rape Crisis Centres said that they would support the development of a central training resource, with the emphasis on the provision of training materials. Although the majority of Centres did not favour the development of the national provision of training courses, the feeling was that only local provision could develop a service truly responsive to local circumstances. Since the inauguration of the Federation, and the funding of a training officer post, materials development work has begun with a consultation on the content of good practice guidelines. Centres see this type of national provision as important in assisting the development of a nationally cohesive movement that acknowledges the importance of local specificity.

Training: the local situation.

Jean I dunno it sounds like it wasn’t an o r d in a r y g ro u p . But there isn’t