Northern Ireland's victims' charity#
Victim Support NI began in 1981, when seven volunteers in Glengormley and Whiteabbey started visiting people whose homes had been burgled. Local schemes grew into a federation and then a single charity, now working from two hubs, in Belfast and Foyle, after cuts in 2015. It is independent, and it helps people whether or not they reported the crime to the police and however long ago it happened.
Contacting the Belfast and Foyle hubs#
The contact page asks you to choose the Belfast or Foyle hub and phone or email for an appointment. The offices are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm; if the lines are busy you can leave your name and number for a call back. It has no out-of-hours line or web chat of its own, so for urgent help outside those hours contact the police, or for domestic or sexual abuse the 24-hour helpline run by Nexus NI. Its site header has a hide site link and a link to nidirect's guide to covering your tracks online.
What it offers#
- The Witness Service, at all of Northern Ireland's criminal courts, for adult prosecution witnesses (the NSPCC supports children). It offers a visit to the court beforehand, someone to go into court with you, a separate waiting area, help with a victim personal statement and virtual tours of courtrooms; its Help at court pages explain special measures, including giving evidence from a remote centre.
- Compensation. It helps with claims under the Northern Ireland criminal injuries scheme, through reviews and appeals, including representing people at the Appeals Panel, free and with nothing taken from the award.
- Sexual Offences Legal Advisers. SOLAs are qualified lawyers for adult victims of serious sexual offences, there until a trial starts, with a focus on privacy, such as requests for medical records or sexual history. You can refer yourself, even before deciding whether to report, or ask the officer in your case. A children's version, CSOLA, covers under-18s.
- Hate crime advocacy, restorative practice, and arts therapy for young people with complex trauma in parts of Northern Ireland.
Its independent sexual violence adviser service closed in August 2021; that advocacy now comes from Assist NI.
A change of name in Northern Ireland#
Victim Support NI publishes nothing on names, so if a new name is part of staying safe, the Northern Ireland rules are the place to start. You can use a deed poll wherever you were born, and one you keep to yourself is not registered anywhere. For anyone whose birth or adoption was registered in Northern Ireland, nidirect describes a second route, a change of name recorded by the General Register Office against your birth registration, with limits on how often you can use it. The handbook's Northern Ireland guide sets the two side by side.
If your address needs protecting too, the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland runs its own anonymous registration scheme, and our page on keeping an address private covers the evidence it asks for. A SOLA or the Witness Service can tell you whether a new name needs to be raised in your case before you change it.
This page describes what Victim Support NI publishes on its own website, read on 26 October 2026. Victim Support NI has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
