In 2018 Rape Crisis North East where successfully awarded $8,500.00 Dollars (€7,220) from PayPal Gives Programme to transform a room at our counselling centre in Cherrywood, Great Northern Distillery (GND) to a dedicated specialised counselling room for young people and their families from as young as 12 years of age.

Rape Crisis North East along with other successful charities where presented the award at the PayPal Giving Ceremonies in their PayPal offices located in Dundalk and Dublin in March 2018.

The grant was a huge benefit to our service.  It is as a result of PayPal Gives Programme, we were able to provide a safe place for our young people to get much needed care and support; a place where they can explore their thoughts, feelings and concerns without being judged.  The trauma of rape and sexual abuse can be devastating and without the necessary treatment the effects can last a lifetime.  Therefore early intervention is critical to provide our young people with the essential tools and coping skills to help them manage the trauma they have endured.   

Our project is now successfully complete and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff at PayPal for nominating RCNE for the grant; and to sincerely thank PayPal Gives Programme for awarding RCNE such a substantial sum of money to such a worthy cause and for understanding how important this service is to all young people living in the North East of Ireland. 

RCNE is the only specialised and dedicated counselling service in the North East available to support young people who have experienced any form of sexual violence from the age of 12.  It is as a result of PayPal’s generosity to our service that we have been able to increase our counselling service for this particular vulnerable group of people, and as a result provide counselling and other support services to boys and girls living in Dundalk and other areas of Louth, Meath, Monaghan and Cavan.

A huge thank you to PayPal Employee Give Programme for this incredible opportunity to develop a specialised room for young people.  This grant has enabled us to design and furnish a very run down room into a space specially designed to cater for the needs of young people in a counselling environment to a very high standard.  The young people attending our service love the new facilities and find the room very therapeutic, warm, safe, comfortable and most importantly confidential.