Circles UK celebrates tenth anniversary
Circles UK celebrated its tenth anniversary on 7 December
Quakers hosted an evening to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Circles UK, the charity that works to provide ‘circles of support and accountability’ to convicted sex offenders. ‘Celebrating the Circles 10 year Journey’ at Friends House in London included conversation, films and performances highlighting the ‘richness and diversity’ of its work and paying tribute to its contributors.
Helen Drewery, head of witness and worship at Britain Yearly Meeting, who was instrumental in setting up the charity, told the Friend: ‘It was inspiring to feel the passion among the volunteers, staff and trustees for this proven way of preventing sexual abuse… the same passion that we felt in the early days. Long may it continue.’
According to one Quaker at the event, there was ‘a spirit of determined optimism’ as Circles UK ‘has been through some rough times recently, with their member organisations being threatened with major funding cuts’.
Quakers were thanked for their central role in starting up and helping to sustain the charity in Britain.
One Circles volunteer and sexual abuse survivor said in the past that she felt her work ‘substantially reduced the likelihood of our offender creating more victims’.
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