Our History

In 2019, Safe Space celebrated its 25th year of funding from Fife Council.

Safe Space History 1993-2019 

In the late 1980s, the need to support people who had experienced childhood sexual abuse was identified by a group of survivors in Dunfermline, who came together for mutual support. From this grew a small voluntary project with a hand full of volunteers helping to raise awareness within the community, also reaching out to parents and relatives.

In the early 1990s Fife council began to fund the project, and provided premises in Bruce Street Hall Dunfermline. This funding gave us four part time staff members and a few volunteer befrienders to support a growing service that took referrals from social work , health workers and self-referrals from survivors and family members.

Not long after, the organization developed from befriending to a counselling service and group support facilitated by staff and volunteers. Alongside this grew a 25-year long tradition of training people in the community to support adult (16+) survivors of childhood sexual abuse in a therapeutic setting using counselling skills.

The organisation moved to Victoria Street, Dunfermline and began to provide outreach counselling in the west Fife villages, assisted by funding from NHS Fife.