A new so­cial in­ter­ven­tion by the Po­lice Ser­vice’s Vic­tim and Wit­ness Sup­port Unit (VW­SU) is help­ing teen sur­vivors of sex­u­al as­sault, and their fam­i­lies, share their ex­pe­ri­ences and re­claim their lives af­ter the trau­mat­ic ex­pe­ri­ence.

Launched in the East­ern Polic­ing Di­vi­sion, the VW­SU says it will con­duct more ses­sions through­out the 10 polic­ing di­vi­sions, where nec­es­sary.

From March 25-28, the VW­SU in the East­ern Di­vi­sion host­ed a group of 11 teenage fe­male vic­tims/sur­vivors of sex­u­al as­sault at the San­gre Grande Civic Cen­tre.  The young women were pro­vid­ed with a safe and sup­port­ive en­vi­ron­ment to re­count their ex­pe­ri­ences and to learn how to de­vel­op ap­pro­pri­ate cop­ing skills, as they con­tin­ued to heal from their trau­ma.

A re­lease from the Po­lice Ser­vice re­ports that par­tic­i­pants at the sur­vivors’ ses­sion felt the ini­tia­tive was ben­e­fi­cial, es­pe­cial­ly as they had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to in­ter­act with Daniel­la Xavier, a for­mer client of the VW­SU who shared her sto­ry and her walk to­wards heal­ing.

“This has been a good ex­pe­ri­ence, we need­ed this, and we need safe spaces like these,” the ses­sion’s par­tic­i­pants stat­ed.

An­oth­er par­tic­i­pant shared: “I feel like I can cope bet­ter and have a bet­ter un­der­stand­ing of what I am ex­pe­ri­enc­ing.”

The par­ents of the teens had their own ses­sion on April 2, 2024, al­so at the San­gre Grande Civic Cen­tre.

“Par­ents shared that they ob­served pos­i­tive changes af­ter the group ses­sions were held with their chil­dren,” the TTPS re­lease re­ports.

“One par­ent al­so in­di­cat­ed that her teenag­er had since been ac­tive on a What­sApp chat cre­at­ed by the girls. An­oth­er teen en­rolled in a com­mu­ni­ty skills train­ing class to help her de­vel­op a new and mar­ketable skill,” it added.

The ses­sions were con­duct­ed by Team Lead Deb­o­rah Lee Riv­iears, with Vic­tim and Wit­ness Sup­port Of­fi­cers Jem­ma Tay­lor-Alexan­der, Rick­el Dixon, Bian­ca Au­gus­tus, Jor­dan Nor­eiga and Tia Marie Bac­chus, serv­ing as the in­ter­ven­tion fa­cil­i­ta­tors.

Ex­ter­nal sup­port was pro­vid­ed by Shel­ley-Ann Hart (Di­rec­tor), and Amil­car Sanatan (Deputy Di­rec­tor), Gen­der and Child Af­fairs Di­vi­sion in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter.