Who we are

Our story

The Trust’s roots go back over 40 years starting with Norwich Rape Crisis that was established in the 1980’s as a women’s collective. Sue Lambert joined because she had been sexually assaulted at the age of 16. She trained in her own time to be a counsellor and played a leading role in a string of campaigns in Norwich and Norfolk including Norfolk Says No. In 2000, MPower was set up in Norwich to support male survivors of sexual abuse. They acted as a partner organisation to Norwich Rape Crisis.

In 2007 after years of partnership working, Norwich Rape Crisis and MPower merged to form SeVA (Sexual Violence Alliance) in order to provide counselling and support for anyone affected by domestic violence and sexual abuse, through face to face counselling, a helpline and support groups.

Sue Lambert was a founder of SeVA and was the chair on their board of Trustees for almost 10 years stepping down in 2011 after being diagnosed with breast cancer, she sadly passed away in January 2013. In recognition of her contribution the board members of SeVA decided to honour her memory by changing the name of the charity to the Sue Lambert Trust, incorporating her signature into the logo.

Sue Lambert Trust’s main offices are in Norwich, they started out in a small space opposite the train station and as they expanded they moved to occupy and lease a larger building on Music House Lane which they now own. It was redesigned by LSI Architects and quantity surveyors AECOM in 2015 for free as part of a Norfolk ProHelp Scheme to ensure it met the growing need for more counselling rooms.

In 2014 a satellite office for support was set up in Great Yarmouth operating from Victim Support’s premises in Market Row. In 2019 with support of the National Lottery and national grant making organisations they moved to their own premises in King Street, Great Yarmouth where they still are today.

Demand for counselling and support provided has grown year on year with notable increases in demand after the Jimmy Saville scandal that followed his death and most recently due to the lockdowns we faced as part of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2012-2013 we provided 1796 counselling sessions and in 2021-2022 we provided 10,500!  Demand is increasing year on year and we need to continue to grow, in order to continue our support to all people that are reaching out to us when they’re ready to talk.