Dainty Daisies blossom for Rape Crisis Mid-West

THE Rape Crisis Mid-West outreach service in County Clare, now a year in existence, is reaching out to the community in the wake of budgetary cuts, so it can continue providing its much-needed service.

In the past year, Rape Crisis Mid-West has seen an increase of 11% in those using its service and since launching the outreach service, it has noticed the “huge need” for its provision in the county. However, this year, the organisation is faced with funding concerns, so in order to maintain its services and create a greater awareness of the support it provides in Clare, it has organised The Dainty Daisies fundraising pageant.

“It’s a beauty pageant with a difference. Over the last year, we have had great community support in Clare and we formed a committee last year to organise one big event here, based in Ennis. I think it’s perceived that Rape Crisis Mid-West is a women’s movement but we are open to men and women. We wanted to come up with something that would get men involved in the organisation. We decided to get men involved in a pageant.

“It challenges the stereotype that rape and sexual assault is just about women but I think, more importantly, most of the perpetrators are men and I think it turned it around and made them realise that it is about us as well, we have to take responsibility. With that in mind we decided to organise this,” Verena Tarpey, director of fundraising for Rape Crisis Mid-West, said.

Participating in the pageant are 12 businessmen from all walks of life in the county including Brian O’Neill, Councillor Johnny Flynn, Seamus Ryan, Tadhg Kelly, Ken O’Shaughnessy, Richard Donnellan, Liam Minogue, John Sweeney, Kevin Chesser, Paul Tuohy and Nard Slabbers.

“It’s something that’s supported by the women’s movement, it’s not something that is controversial in terms of how it is perceived. The participants were very excited to be involved and they saw it as a great way to challenge that stereotype. We targeted people that had a sense of humour but who understood the seriousness of it,” Verena outlined.

The event takes place on November 24 in the Auburn Lodge Hotel at 8pm. The pageant will see the men dress up in ball gowns and take to the stage where they will be interviewed for two minutes, followed by a party piece. The MC and judges have not yet been fully confirmed but two of the judges will be Clare Rose Orla McDonagh and Tess Purcell.

“It’s not drag, we’re not poking fun at drag. It’s more of a beauty pageant than drag. Each of the men is doing a fundraising event to raise money and get out in the community, so we will be hoping that people will get behind it,” Verena said.

She explained with a fundraiser like this, it is important to include a humorous element.

“We are dealing with a lot of seriousness every day, we’re dealing with a lot of trauma, a lot of people who have suffered in the past and we feel this is a great light-hearted way of dealing with it. The reason being is that our centre would work very much under the radar, a very taboo organisation and there is still that stigma out there about saying ‘I support the Rape Crisis Centre’,” she said.

The centre opens in Clare two days a week from the Tracklands Business Park on Clonroadmore and currently has 10 clients.

“We had been seeing clients from Clare in Limerick but people were finding it difficult to travel up from Kilrush and Kilkee, so we opted to move here.

“We don’t get any Government funding to cover the overheads here in Clare. The opening of the outreach in Clare has created huge awareness of our service. At the moment, our critical issue is to sustain the service we have because we have all been subject to cuts, including a one-month redundancy for all staff to try to balance the budgets. The people using the service vary from those availing of short to long-term counselling, both men and women.

“The service in Clare has proved beneficial as the service users, both men and women may I add, don’t have to travel into Limerick; secondly, it has raised a huge awareness of the need for the centre here. It’s had a knock-on effect in terms of even getting the community involved to do events and fundraise for us,” Verena said.

The principle services provided by Mid-West Clare include a telephone service and one-to-one counselling. They offer short term or long-term support.

“Not only do we provide counselling but we provide things like court accompaniment and SATU work, which is the sexual assault treatment unit. If there is a callout in Clare, they can go to the SATU in Limerick or Galway and we provide volunteers 365-days-a-year. We also do things like training and education. For example, we are currently doing an education programme called SPACE (Support, Personable Aware Care and Exit) in Clare. It’s targeting transition year pupils and tackles things like appreciation of limits in relation to alcohol and drugs, the law in relation to sexual assault and how to stay safe. That ran on a pilot basis in Clare last year and this year, we have rolled it out to a number of schools in the county, depending on the number of volunteers we have to do the programme,” she said.

Verena explained there still is a stigma attached to supporting Rape Crisis Mid-West and she believes it is a societal thing.

“Bear in mind that 25% of the female population will be affected in some way by this, be it sexual abuse, sexual harassment in the workplace…. I think society is still embarrassed and stigmatised to talk about the topic and we have found that with awareness-raising events and exhibitions that we have run in Clare, that people have a reluctance. Our volunteers have often said to us that people immediately think it has happened to you if that is why you are supporting it and there is a stigma associated with talking about it. It is generally something that is felt in the organisation as a whole,” she revealed.

Volunteering is also encouraged and Verena said, despite having a number of volunteer counsellors in Clare, there is always a need for more help, be it with fundraising or at the centre.

For more information on the service, or if seeking to engage with the service, freephone 1800 311 511, Monday to Friday, or call to make an appointment. More information is available online at www.rapecrisis.ie.