About us
We also run the Witness Service in every criminal court
This part of our website is where you find out about our charity - its history, how it's run and the people in charge of the organisation.
Yes, we're a charity
Victim Support is the independent charity for victims and witnesses of crime right across England and Wales. We were set up 35 years ago and have grown to become the oldest and largest victims' organisation in the world. Every year, we contact over 1.5 million people after a crime to offer our help.
Although we work closely with the police, courts and other parts of the criminal justice system, we are quite separate. The help we give is confidential and free. If you ask for our help, we won’t tell anyone without your permission – unless it’s an emergency and we think someone’s safety is at risk.
Just like any other charity we need funds to support our work. We also depend on thousands of specially-trained volunteers to deliver our services to victims and witnesses.
Where we are
We have offices across England and Wales organising help for victims and managed by our National Centre in London. We also run the Witness Service in every court - it has a different name but it’s still part of Victim Support. And we run a national helpline, the Victim Supportline, to give help and information over the phone.
How we help
We give three kinds of help to both victims and witnesses:
You can find out more about our work on the how we help section of our website.
Our research and campaigns
As well as helping victims and witnesses directly, we carry out research and campaign to raise awareness and get improvements in how victims and witnesses are treated. You can read more about how we do this on our policy and campaigns pages.