One of the most powerful tools is a support group, where you become a member of a group that really understands what you are going through. Finding your way to this is empowering: You will be heard and believed. It's a validation and justification of your experiences, with the tools to help you recover”.
The Road Forward Trust is a registered charitable trust. The Trust provides peer support to male survivors of sexual abuse through empowering survivors to take back control of their lives.
At the Road Forward Trust, we are all survivors and know and understand the pain. Many of us have experienced the overwhelming feelings of shame, guilt, anger, anxiety, depression, as well as experiencing flashbacks, relationship problems and unhealthy coping strategies including alcohol and drug abuse.
International Statistics indicate that 1 in 6 males are likely to be sexually abused(unwanted sexual experience) by age 18! Anyone can be a victim of sexual abuse; boys, girls, men and women!
Survivors of sexual abuse are not weak individuals, quite the reverse. It takes tremendous courage to disclose the abuse and break the silence and shame.
We also provide support to wives/partners and whanau with information and resources to enable them to better support their male survivors.
We will listen, support and we won’t judge.
An opportunity to disclose what happened to you in a confidential, safe, supportive and friendly environment with a trained peer supporter. We do not judge you as we have all been through similar experiences.
You do not need to talk about what actually happened, you can just talk about how your own experiences are affecting you now and learn about ways of coping with the impacts of the abuse.
We offer the following free peer support :
Our peer support is evidence based and client focused. We will support you through your recovery journey to help you achieve what you want to in life.
We have walked in your shoes, we understand! We can help you break your isolation and be happier with yourself and your life.
One of the benefits of attending peer support group meetings is experiencing the sense of community that develops between survivors who discover that they are not alone in their abuse experiences and recovery efforts. It makes it easier to share experiences and to start to trust others which are key parts of breaking out of the isolation that characterises most survivors' lives.
Male survivors who have participated in our peer support report the following benefits :
Many of our members have found that peer support works well when combined with their own personal therapy or counselling.
I was in a deep lonely black hole and could not see any purpose in life nor any future for me! I was all alone. No one cared about me! I was considering ending all my pain and suffering, I couldn’t go on. Meeting with other survivors is helping me out of that dark place and recover some sanity. I have found that I am not alone. I can talk with other male survivors who understand what it is like. They don’t judge me, they understand. I am learning that being with them and sharing is really helping me.
Since joining the peer support group, the opportunities to discuss experiences, strategies for coping and ways of healing, with men who have been through similar trauma has helped me on my journey dealing with sexual abuse. Being involved in the group is having positive effects on family, friendship and workplace interpersonal relationships and communication, with family and close friends commenting that I appear more confident and less depressed.
Childhood sexual abuse is a challenging, complex, painful issue to deal with and I recommend the support group as a valid healing strategy to men who are (or want to) deal with childhood sexual abuse, noting that the support group is particularly effective when combined with professional therapy with a registered clinical psychologist. Joining the support group has been a very positive experience and has proved to be more valuable than I anticipated.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of :
We rely on donations to enable us to provide support to male survivors and their families. If you would like to support us in any way please contact us.