Welcome to the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre. Our service supports the ACT Homelessness Charter, which affirms the human rights of homeless people and outlines their rights to inclusion, dignity, respect, non-discrimination, safety and freedom. A copy of the Charter is displayed in our premises and we can provide you with a copy if you request one.

To show our support for the Charter, and our respect for your rights, we make the following service guarantee to both adults and children seeking our support:

• We will explain to you how our service works, what you can expect from us and what your rights and responsibilities are.
• We will respect your cultural values and aim to provide a culturally sensitive service
• We work with everyone using our service according to their needs and the urgency in meeting those needs.
• We will work with you to identify your needs and goals and develop a plan to assist you to work towards having them met.
• Where we can’t meet your needs we will support you to try to have them met by other services
• We will work to maintain good relationships with other services to make sure that your needs can be met and you can achieve your goals
• We will support your ongoing relationships with the important people in your life and to develop or maintain connections to your community, family or friends and to participate in school, education and/or community activities
• We will work with housing providers to identify your housing options.
• We will only ask you the information that is relevant to the support that we provide you
• We will respect your privacy and not share information with any other services unless you give us your consent, or unless we have serious concerns about your safety or the safety of anyone else.
• We will respect your right to make choices and provide you with information so that you can make informed choices
• Safety is of primary concern to us and we will make every effort to ensure that you are safe while in our service
• We will communicate with you about any changes to our service that will impact on you
• We will listen to your feedback about our service and commit ourselves to trying to make our service as good as possible. We will respond to any complaints received and where possible provide feedback regarding steps taken to address the complaint
• All workers will maintain clear boundaries about their roles and responsibilities
• We will work for social justice and to change the things in our society that lead people into homelessness.

If you have a complaint to make you can follow the service’s complaints procedure (available in our waiting room, or by requesting it from any worker within the organisation). If the complaint is not resolved , you will find further information in the complaints procedure regarding details of other external agencies that will be able to assist you.