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HomeFor young people

For young people

Feeling overwhelmed? You are not alone.

 

Our dedicated service for young people aged 13-25 offers a safe and confidential space to talk about your experience.

 

Types of support we can offer you:

  • Face-to-face in our centre
  • Video call over Zoom
  • Outreach service in schools or colleges (coming soon)

 

Get in touch with us by filling in our form

(or use our live chat at the bottom of this page, Mondays 2-5pm and Thursdays 11am-2pm)

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Podcasts have power - and with that power comes responsibility. When misogyny, harmful gender stereotypes, and the normalisation of sexual violence are repeatedly amplified online, we cannot treat it as 'just and opinion'. Currently, misogynists with a podcast can say whatever they want with minimal regulation, allowing harmful views to spread unchecked. We need greater accountability and stronger regulation for online content that promotes misogyny, hatred, and the normalisation of sexual violence. If we are serious about preventing sexual violence and creating a society where women and girls are safe and respected, we need to challenge misogyny and harmful attitudes wherever they appear - including online. There is currently a petition calling for greater regulation of podcasts. If you want to learn more, or support the call for greater accountability, you can find the petition through the following link: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/765241#data #InternationalPodcastDay #EndViolenceAgainstWomen #OnlineMisogyny #Feminism
🌎️ International Safe Abortion Day 💜 Today, The STAR Centre stands in solidarity with survivors, and supports every person's right to safe, legal, and compassionate abortion care. We believe everyone deserves access to healthcare that is free from stigma, judgement, and unnecessary barriers. For survivors of sexual violence, accessing abortion services can be particularly challenging. Alongside the impact of trauma, survivors may face barriers in accessing the care they need, as well as fear of stigma or judgement. Everyone deserves to be treated with compassion, dignity, and respect throughout their healthcare journey. We must continue working towards a future where every person can access stigma-free care. No one should face additional barriers when making decisions about their own body. #InternationalSafeAbortionDay #AbortionIsHealthcare #SupportSurvivors
Happy #WorldContraceptionDay! 💜 World Contraception Day is a campaign observed annually, and aims to raise awareness about safe sex and improve education on reproductive health. Openly talking about contraception is one of many ways we can practice consent - it is a way of checking in with each other, respecting boundaries, and making informed decisions together. While discussing condoms, the pill, implants, or other methods, can feel awkward, these conversations show that everyone's safety, comfort, and feelings matter. When it comes to contraception, decisions should be: ✅️ Made without pressure ✅️ Informed ✅️ Specific to time, place, and method ✅️ Part of an open and honest conversation This World Contraception Day, let's continue to encourage healthy relationships built on communication, respect, and choice. #WorldContraceptionDay #ConsentMatters #HealthyRelationships #SexualHealth
Nothing changes this fact. If you or anyone you know needs help, we're here for you💜 #TheSTARCentre #RapeCrisisAyrshireAndArran #SupportingSurvivors
We're often encouraged to keep going - even when we're running on empty. Remember: you don't have to earn rest, you don't have to wait until you're completely overwhelmed before asking for help, and you don't have to carry everything on you're own. Sometimes looking after yourself means putting something down, taking a break, or seeking support. You deserve the same care and compassion you give to others 🩵
📢 WE’RE HIRING! Prevention Worker Deliver prevention education to young people across Ayrshire, promoting healthy relationships, consent, respect and equality. Outreach Support & Advocacy Worker x 2 Will worker across North and South Ayrshire (one worker per area) providing direct support and advocacy services to survivors. 📍 Based in Kilmarnock 🕐 Full time – 35 hours per week 💷 £34,307 + 6% pension contribution 🌴 40 days’ annual leave 🚗 Car and clean driving license required Interested? Email us at admin@starcentreayrshire.org or visit https://goodmoves.org/organisation/001b000000St74AAAR/the-star-centre to find out more. #WeAreHiring #SexualViolencePrevention #AdvocacyJobs #SupportJobs #AyrshireJobs
👓️You shouldn't have to know where the camera is to know your boundaries matter. Smart glasses are just one example of how technology is changing the way people can record others. For women and girls, the risks aren't simply about technology - they're about power, privacy, and the ways technology can be used to facilitate violence and abuse. A common argument is that we already expect to be recorded when we're out in public. While we may expect CCTV - this doesn't mean we have consented to individuals recording us for whatever purpose they choose. CCTV has a defined purpose and rules around storage and access. Personal recording with smart glasses is different - an individual can potentially keep and share what they capture. Consent and privacy still matter. We need better conversations, better safeguards, and real accountability. #RapeCrisisAyrshireAndArran #TheSTARCentre #SexualViolence #Privacy
Preventing sexual violence can save lives. ❤️ Sexual violence can have a profound impact on someone’s mental health and wellbeing. Survivors may experience fear, shame, isolation, hopelessness or feel that nobody will understand or believe them. We can help change that. Prevention starts with all of us: talking openly about consent, challenging harmful attitudes, believing survivors, listening without judgement and creating communities where people feel safe to speak and reach out for support. When we prevent sexual violence, we can help prevent the trauma, isolation and hopelessness that can put people’s lives at risk. Every conversation matters. Every survivor deserves to be believed. Every person deserves to feel safe. This World Suicide Prevention Day, let’s remember that creating safer, kinder and more supportive communities is part of suicide prevention too. Listen. Believe. Support. Prevent. #WorldSuicidePreventionDay #SexualViolencePrevention #TheSTARCentre #RapeCrisisAyrshireAndArran #EndSexualViolence
🔔 Reminder 🔔 Our helpline is open on Mondays and Thursdays, offering support to anyone who has experienced sexual violence at anytime in their life. Whether you are looking for emotional support, information, or advocacy support - we are here to help. Opening Times: Mondays 2pm-5pm Thursdays 11am-2pm 📞 Call: 07850 214805 💬 Text: 07850 214803 💻️ Instant message during helpline hours via www.starcentreayrshire.org 📧 Email: support.mail@starcentreayrshire.org Remember, you are not alone - support is available 🩵 #HelplineSupport #ImmediateSupport #ConfidentialSupport #Advocacy #RuralAccessibility
Happy National Read a Book Day! 📖 🩷 Self-Care can look different for everyone. Sometimes it can be as simple as taking some time for yourself, getting cosy with a good book, and allowing yourself a moment away from the demands of everyday life. For survivors of sexual violence, self-care can be especially important. Self-care might be doing something you enjoy like reading or spending time with friends, getting outside, resting - or reaching out for support when you need it. There is no 'right' way to practice self-care, and you don't have to do it alone. Reaching out for support is a form of self-care too. If you have experienced sexual violence and would like support, The STAR Centre is here for you. 📞 01563 544686 🌐 www.starcentreayrshire.org Whatever self-care looks like for you today, you deserve care, kindness, and support 🩵 #NationalReadABookDay #SelfCare #TheSTARCentre
🌍💜 This International Day of Charity, we’re celebrating the power of community. As a small rape crisis centre, every bit of support makes a real difference. Donate, fundraise for us, share our posts, or simply help raise awareness of the support we provide. Whether it’s making a donation through our JustGiving, sharing our posts, starting a fundraiser, having a conversation, spreading the word, or helping someone find our services, every gesture makes a difference. There are so many ways to support our work, and no gesture is too small. 💜 Thank you for standing with survivors and helping us continue our work. Together, we make a difference. 🫶 🔗 You can support us through JustGiving. Link in bio 🔗 #InternationalDayOfCharity #TheSTARCentre #RapeCrisisAyrshireAndArran #EveryGestureHelps #RaiseAwareness
Today is World Sexual Health Day 🌍️ This year's theme is Every Body - and the space between those two words is important. It holds two ideas at once: every person, and the body they inhabit. Every person lives in a body, but not every body experiences sexual health, rights, justice, and pleasure on equal terms. Stigma, discrimination, and the assumptions built into our healthcare, education, and wider systems can create barriers for people whose experiences don't fit what is treated as the
“Revenge porn” is a misnomer. The term suggests that sharing intimate images without consent is an act of “revenge”, implying that the person whose image has been shared has somehow done something to deserve it. They haven’t. It is never the survivor’s fault. People can consensually send intimate photos to each other, sometimes regularly and as part of a relationship. Choosing to send someone a photo means consenting to that person receiving it. It does not mean consenting to that photo being shared with anyone else. Consent is specific. The recipient is responsible for respecting the consent that was given. Sharing, posting or forwarding an intimate image without consent is a choice made by the person who shares it. We use the term image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) because it better describes what is happening and the harm caused. #ImageBasedSexualAbuse #IBSA #RevengePorn #TheSTARCentre #RapeCrisisAyrshireAndArran
📚️ With the beginning of the new academic year, we have taken the opportunity to look back on our prevention work over the past year. During 2025-26, we had the privilege of working with 4,640 young people across 232 workshops, creating spaces for young people to learn, ask questions, and have open conversations about healthy relationships, consent, and sexual violence. We've received some really positive feedback, with young people telling us our workshops have helped them feel more confident talking about consent, understand how power dynamics can influence relationships, and more confident in challenging the attitudes and behaviours they see around them. Prevention starts with conversations - by giving young people the opportunity to develop their knowledge, challenge harmful attitudes, and think critically about relationships, we can support them to make informed choices and recognise what healthy relationships can look and feel like. Our free workshops are available to schools, youth groups, colleges, and universities across Ayrshire. To find out more or to book a workshop, get in touch with The STAR Centre at prevention@starcentreayrshire.org.
✨️ Stopping violence against women is everyone's business ✨️ We all have a role to play in challenging the attitudes, behaviours, and inequalities that allow violence to happen. This can mean speaking up when we hear sexist or harmful comments, challenging victim-blaming, promoting healthy relationships and consent, educating ourselves, and supporting survivors with compassion and without judgement. We all have a responsibility to challenge violence, change harmful attitudes, and help create a world where everyone feels safe, respected, and heard. Together, we can challenge violence and be part of the change 💜 #16DaysOfActivism #EndViolenceAgainstWomen #Consent #GenderBasedViolence
Boundaries are more than saying “no.” They are about knowing what feels safe, comfortable and right for you, and having the freedom to communicate that without fear of being punished, pressured or made to feel guilty. You are allowed to change your mind. You are allowed to say no. You are allowed to leave. You are allowed to ask someone to stop. You are allowed to decide what happens to your body, your time, your space and your relationships. And importantly, you do not have to justify a boundary for it to be valid. A healthy relationship respects boundaries, even when someone doesn’t understand them or wouldn’t make the same choice themselves. Someone being disappointed by your boundary does not make your boundary unreasonable. When another person repeatedly ignores, pushes, challenges or decides your boundaries for you, that isn't respect; it's control. If someone has crossed your boundaries, pressured you, or made you feel that you weren't allowed to say no, please remember: it isn't your fault. You don't have to navigate what happened alone. 💜 Our team is here to offer confidential, non-judgemental support to people affected by sexual violence. You don't need to have all the answers, and you don't have to know exactly what you need before reaching out. If you need us, we're here to listen, support you and help you take things at your own pace. Your boundaries matter. Your voice matters. You matter. 💜 #Boundaries #HealthyRelationships #TheSTARCentre #RapeCrisisAyrshireAndArran #YourBodyYourChoice
The STAR Centre is here for you. Always. If you or someone you know needs support you can call us on 01563 544 686 or visit our website: starcentreayrshire.org #TheSTARCentre #RapeCrisisAyrshireAndArran #SupportingSurvivors
Fawning: A Trauma Response. When we talk about responses to trauma, we often hear about fight, flight, or freeze. But, there is another response that is just as important to understand: fawning. Fawning can look like agreeing, going along with something, people-pleasing, apologising, or trying to keep someone happy in a situation where you don't feel safe. Because it can look like cooperation from the outside, fawning is sometimes wrongly interpreted as consent. But - Fawning is not consent. A trauma response can happen automatically when someone feels threatened, overwhelmed or unsafe; it is our brains trying to keep us alive and safe in dangerous situations - we don't get to choose these in the moment. Someone may respond in a way that helps them get through the situation - even when what is happening isn't something they want. Understanding trauma responses can help us challenge victim-blaming and create more compassion for survivors. If you have experienced sexual violence, you are not alone, support is available at The STAR Centre. #Fawning #TraumaResponse #Consent #SexualViolenceAwareness
Consider this our kind of chic. 💜 Creating spaces where people feel heard, listened to and supported matters. So does knowing where to turn when you need help, whether that’s for yourself or someone you care about. We're here for you. #TheSTARCentre #RapeCrisisAyrshireAndArran #KindaChic
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