Community / ‘Work to do’ still for Compass Centre as charity prepares to celebrate 10 years
Sexual violence ‘still an issue here’, managing director says
THE COMPASS Centre will mark a decade of supporting sexual violence survivors this year, along with plans to open an accessible outdoor therapy space in its Lerwick garden.
The charity, which was formerly known as Shetland Rape Crisis, will bring up 10 years of providing help and advice to local survivors by reflecting on its progress over the last decade.
It also hopes to unveil a new cabin-style room in its Hill Lane garden, which will allow service users with accessibility needs to use its spaces in comfort.
Managing director Debbie Sangster said the charity will take time to stop and look back at how far they have come – and how far they still have to go – as they celebrate their 10th anniversary.
“We want to have an event in May, early spring, that marks the journey the service has been on,” she told Shetland News.
“We will pause and recognise the work that we have done, but we know that we have some work still to do too.”
Sangster stepped into the Compass Centre’s top job last July after moving to the isles from Glasgow.
She worked in several third-sector organisations, including for a mental health charity, but admitted she knew little about Shetland before making the journey north.
“Really the main focus when I started was providing that stability,” Sangster said.
“I was trying to find out what it means to work here, what it means to live here, what it means for survivors here.
“I was really just trying to understand the full picture. It’s been a learning curve.”
While Sangster said she had to take time to understand what it meant to work for a charity supporting sexual violence survivors, she added there was “definitely an overlap” with a mental health charity too.
“It’s things like wide systemic problems, breaking down stigma and being able to talk about those things,” she explained.
“You’re still working to find where people are at, and going on that journey of understanding with them.”
The Compass Centre has a small team – nine staff members, including Sangster – which brings its own challenges.
But Sangster said the team were “incredibly resilient, incredibly robust” and were constantly pushing themselves to deliver the best for their service users.
She pointed out that they met 109 survivors in the 2024/25 financial year alone.
Despite that, Sangster said they continued to face an “uncertain landscape for funding”.
The Compass Centre supported NHS Shetland and partners like Police Scotland with the launch of a ‘call it out’ campaign last December urging people to challenge unwanted behaviour around the festive period.
Sangster said the move also came in response to several reported incidents of sexual violence around the Up Helly Aa calendar last year.
“They [NHS Shetland] felt there was a real need to put that out,” she said.
“The campaign itself was developed to look at how they could raise awareness, and I think the public health approach and alcohol safety aspect was the right way to go about it.
“We’re absolutely supportive of any campaign that looks at alcohol safety and looking after each other, and showing that there’s a zero tolerance for this behaviour.”
Asked how incidents of sexual violence in Shetland compared with the national picture, Sangster said there was “definitely” still “work to do” here.
A recent community survey carried out by the charity found 90 per cent of respondents felt sexual violence was either an issue or significant issue in Shetland.
“I think some people still think it’s not an issue here, but it absolutely is, unfortunately violence is still an issue here,” she said.
“We need to make sure that men are an active part of the conversations, because that’s where it starts.
“It’s about engaging people in the right way, encouraging people to think about how we can address harmful behaviours before it becomes offending behaviour.
“Understanding and awareness is a big part of that, so it’s about engaging men and boys in the conversation to stand up and speak out.”
Looking at the Compass Centre’s plans to build a new “cabin-style” therapy space in its garden, its managing director said the charity was excited by its possibilities.
“We’re in an old building on three floors, we have lots of stairs, so we needed to find creative ways to address that and to utilise the space in the garden as well,” Sangster said.
“We’re committed to being as inclusive and accessible as possible, and so this has no stairs – it’s all on the flat.
“Having an extra space will always be useful, because we have that real desire that our survivors have full confidentiality.
“We don’t have any waiting rooms, we stagger appointment times, so having this third therapy space will make a big difference.”
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