Scottish Women's Rights Centre

What Scottish Women's Rights Centre does

Scottish Women's Rights Centre (SWRC) is a Glasgow-headquartered Scottish charitable initiative founded in 2015 that provides free, confidential specialist legal advice, representation, and advocacy to women aged 16+ in Scotland who have experienced gender-based violence, including domestic abuse, sexual violence, stalking, honour-based abuse, forced marriage, and sexual harassment. Services are delivered through a national advocacy helpline, a volunteer-solicitor legal helpline, scheduled one-to-one legal surgeries across Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Edinburgh, Stirling, Dundee, and Inverness, fortnightly-assessed legal representation take-on, and a Solicitor Signposting Network. The organization is structurally a tripartite collaboration: Rape Crisis Scotland provides coordination and advocacy staff, JustRight Scotland provides all legal services via its authorised solicitors, and the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic supplies supervised student volunteers for casework.

The core technology stack is modest and purpose-built for a human-services charity rather than a tech company. It consists of OASIS, an online case management database used across advocacy, helplines, surgery appointments, and email advice, with role-restricted access for Rape Crisis Scotland and JustRight Scotland staff; secure cloud-based storage for legal casework held by JustRight Scotland; and the FollowItApp, a free mobile application co-developed with Media Co-op that enables stalking survivors to record incidents and build an evidence log tailored to Scottish law. Standard SaaS integrations (Calendly for booking, Eventbrite for training ticketing, Microsoft Forms for feedback, Google Analytics on the website) support operational delivery. The organization also maintains an extensive multilingual resource library of legal guides and factsheets available in 18+ languages.

SWRC's business model is grant-funded rather than commercial. All services are provided free of charge to service users. Core operations are funded by the Scottish Government Justice Department, administered through the Scottish Legal Aid Board; training and policy work are funded by The Legal Education Foundation; and specific roles (such as the sexual harassment solicitor) have been funded by Rosa's Justice and Equality Fund. Professional training for solicitors and other GBV-facing professionals is delivered as a paid service via Eventbrite. As of the most recent data, SWRC operates with approximately 8 employees and is currently in a reduced-capacity posture, with legal and advocacy take-on processes closed pending a capacity review on 1 September 2026.

Name

Scottish Women's Rights Centre

Legal name

Scottish Women's Rights Centre

Website

https://scottishwomensrightscentre.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

SWRC is a Glasgow-based Scottish charitable collaboration, founded in 2015, that provides free specialist legal advice, representation, and advocacy to women survivors of gender-based violence in Scotland via helplines, surgeries across six cities, and the FollowItApp mobile tool.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Legal Aid & Women's Rights Advocacy

NAICS

Individual and Family Services (6241), Human Rights Organizations (813311), Other Individual and Family Services (624190)

SIC

Services-Legal Services (8111), Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Domestic Violence & Abuse Support Services (BPAGAEAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Protection Services (GBV, Child Protection, Legal Aid) (BPADADAH), Legal Aid & Client Advocacy Services (BPAGAEAM), Gender Equality & Women’s Rights Advocacy (BPAGAFAD)

Keywords

• Legal advocacy services
• Gender-based violence support
• Free legal aid
• Women's rights services
• Stalking documentation app

Headquarters

HQ city

Glasgow

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Core Services Funding: SWRC is funded by the Scottish Government (Justice Department), administered by the Scottish Legal Aid Board. Services are provided free to women survivors of gender-based violence.
2. Training and Policy Work Funding: The Legal Education Foundation funds justice training and policy work. Additional funding from Rosa (Justice and Equality Fund) for specific positions like the sexual harassment solicitor.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Scottish Women's Rights Centre provides free, specialist legal advice, representation, and advocacy services to women aged 16+ in Scotland who are survivors of gender-based violence, including domestic abuse, sexual violence, stalking, honour-based abuse, and forced marriage. Services are delivered through advocacy and legal helplines, scheduled legal advice surgeries across multiple Scottish cities, legal representation, and advocacy support, supplemented by the FollowItApp mobile application and a Pro-Bono Solicitor Network.

Product overview

The Scottish Women's Rights Centre is a collaborative project providing a unified suite of free legal and advocacy services to women survivors of gender-based violence in Scotland. The core offering comprises helplines (staffed by advocacy workers and pro-bono solicitors), legal advice surgeries, legal representation, and advocacy support. Key specialized services include the FollowItApp mobile application for stalking documentation, the RISE@SWRC project for women who sell/exchange sex, and a dedicated Sexual Harassment Legal Service. These are supported by extensive legal guides, factsheets, and multilingual resources, along with professional training programs and a solicitor signposting network.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• FollowItApp: A free mobile application designed to help stalking survivors record incidents and assist them if they want to report to police. Tailored to Scottish law.
• RISE@SWRC

Products and services

• Advocacy Helpline Free confidential phone helpline staffed by advocacy workers providing support, information, and referrals to women survivors of gender-based violence in Scotland.
• Legal Helpline Free confidential phone helpline staffed by volunteer solicitors providing initial legal advice to women survivors of gender-based violence in Scotland.
• Legal Advice Surgeries One-on-one scheduled appointments with solicitors for detailed legal advice on complex matters, available across Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Edinburgh, Stirling, Dundee, and Inverness.
• Legal Representation SWRC may take on cases for legal representation in court or other legal proceedings, with applications assessed on a fortnightly basis by JustRight Scotland solicitors.
• Advocacy Support Support with complaint processes, finding legal representation, and assistance when an abuser maliciously reports the survivor to police.
• FollowItApp A free mobile app designed for stalking survivors to record incidents and maintain an evidence log. Tailored to Scottish law and usable whether or not users decide to report to police.
• RISE@SWRC Rights, Information, Support and Engagement service providing judgement-free legal and advocacy support for women who sell or exchange sex who have been impacted by abuse or violence.
• Sexual Harassment Legal Service Specialist legal service providing information, advice and representation for women who have experienced sexual harassment at work, in further education or online.
• Pro-Bono Solicitor Network Helpline Helpline operated by a network of volunteer solicitors trained by SWRC who provide free legal advice to women survivors of gender-based violence.
• Professional Training Programme Training programs for professionals working with gender-based violence survivors, including approved 2-day Domestic Abuse training and specialist solicitor training, with full training calendar conducted twice yearly.

Quantifiable outcome

• Helpline serves approximately 400 women annually with information and support

Named customers1 record

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• Rape Crisis ScotlandcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Rape Crisis Scotland coordinates the Scottish Women's Rights Centre. RCS is the national office of the rape crisis movement in Scotland, supporting local centres and developing new services. RCS manages the advocacy section of the case management database and provides advocacy staff.
• JustRight ScotlandcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015JustRight Scotland provides all legal services for the centre through its limited liability partnership. Solicitors from JRS staff the helplines and provide legal representation. JRS is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SC047818) authorized by the Law Society of Scotland.
• University of Strathclyde Law CliniccoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015The law clinic provides law students to assist with legal casework and legal outreach under supervision of JustRight Scotland. The clinic may have oversight of cases for risk assessment and strategy. Students operate as volunteer staff members.
• Media Co-opcoreTechnology or IntegrationDeveloped FollowItApp in partnership with SWRC to help stalking survivors document incidents and support police reporting. The app is delivered by RCS in partnership with media co-op.
• Kairos Women+supportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerConsulted on the development of the new SWRC website to ensure accessibility and usability for survivors.
• Women's Aid Groups (Scotland)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorLegal surgeries hosted at local Women's Aid groups in Dundee, Inverness, and other locations across Scotland for women in those areas.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves12 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Ashiana Network: London-based specialist service for women and girls from minority ethnic communities affected by domestic and sexual violence. Comparable in serving migrant and minority women facing GBV, a population SWRC specifically targets with its multilingual resources.
• Respect: UK charity working with perpetrators, victims, and professionals to end domestic abuse. Adjacent peer in the GBV ecosystem addressing violence against women, with overlapping policy and training themes but a different intervention focus.

Broad incumbents

• Women's Aid (England): Federation of over 170 domestic abuse service providers in England. Comparable in advocacy and referral infrastructure supporting women survivors, but operates an England-wide federation rather than the specialist legal model SWRC runs in Scotland.
• Refuge: Largest UK charity specialist in gender-based violence, providing refuges, advocacy, and a national helpline. Comparable in mission and target population but operates at much larger scale and broader scope than SWRC's specialist legal focus.

Others

• University of Strathclyde Law Clinic: Law school clinic providing pro bono legal services to the community and a founding partner of SWRC. Comparable as a supplier of student volunteer legal capacity and a direct collaborator, though not a competing service provider.

Direct peers

• Centre for Women's Justice: UK charity using strategic litigation and advocacy to improve the justice system for women. Comparable to SWRC in combining legal representation with policy reform, focused on state accountability and systemic justice outcomes for women survivors.
• Rape Crisis Scotland: National coordinating body for the rape crisis movement in Scotland and a founding partner of SWRC. Direct peer in providing GBV advocacy services to women survivors in Scotland, with deeply overlapping service population and collaborative governance model.
• Scottish Women's Aid: National umbrella for local Women's Aid groups across Scotland, providing refuge, advocacy, and support to women experiencing domestic abuse. Directly comparable in mission, geography, and beneficiary population, and a key referral partner hosting SWRC's legal surgeries.
• Rights of Women: UK-wide charity providing specialist legal advice and representation to women, particularly on sexual violence, domestic abuse, and family law. Closest England-based peer in terms of free legal helplines, legal guides, and specialist GBV legal services for women.
• JustRight Scotland: Scottish charity and founding partner of SWRC that actually delivers all legal services through its solicitors. Peer in providing specialist legal representation to vulnerable populations, including GBV survivors, with shared governance and shared casework.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCerMHhG4Uqgh3xfnFrJaVaw
• Facebookfacebook.com/swrcscot
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/swrc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Scottish Women's Rights Centre