CAAGe (https://caage.org), the Campaign Against Adult Grooming, is run entirely by volunteers. It was founded originally when a group of women discovered that they had been sexually groomed by a charming, narcissistic, psychopath, and it quickly became apparent that there are few resources available to signpost help for victims/survivors - at least, not in one place.

CAAGe exists to fill that gap, to reassure victims that it’s about the abusers rather than any shortcoming in them as victims/targets, to help, to some extent, answer the ‘why?’ that so many are left with, and to help in any way that we can.

Although information on this site primarily UK based, grooming happens Worldwide, and CAAGe is increasingly looking to partner with volunteers overseas to help us signpost for victims/survivors in other locations, although we do our best to help anyone who has been groomed. We are currently working with people who have been sexually groomed and trafficked in the UK, Australia, the USA and Spain.

Long term we hope to be able to offer both counselling and legal support, free of charge, but for the moment we are limited to campaigning, raising awareness, signposting support, researching and offering listening support, with a bank of counsellors who we trust to refer victims/survivors to and a firm of recommended Private Detectives.

Plans for 2023/4 include consideration of obtaining formal charity status to be able to fundraise to subsidise some of this and to increase awareness of adult grooming.

Campaigning

CAAGe raises awareness through it’s own campaigns and, more often, by supporting relevant campaigns of others. We signpost support. And we have a listening service to help victims (and the people who support them) decide upon their own courses of action and offer a safe space to talk without judgement.

We are committed to ensuring that the professionals we recommend/refer to have a thorough understanding of adult grooming.

As an example, victims of adult sexual grooming have no legal protection in the UK. Children do. There's some support for gay men. But unless there's another crime committed such as fraud or assault, coercive control, in law the victims of adult sexual grooming don't exist.

And that's just how the groomers like it. Any attempt at retaliation, or, more importantly, warning others, is likely to land victims in hot water. UK law needs changing.

However, there are laws that cover things that may happen as part of grooming - coercive control, trafficking, assault etc, so the situation isn’t hopeless, and we are gradually seeing changes.

Research

Grooming is prolific, and the more we know, the more we may be able to help avoid not only sexual grooming but also financial grooming, grooming into forced marriage, human trafficking, modern day slavery, clergy abuse, and more.

Victims NEED to see positive change as results of the mess the groomers leave in their wake. We need to find ways to prevent future victims from falling foul to these predators, and sending a clear message that GROOMING IS NOT OK

Listening Service

We offer an informal listening service to help support the victims of grooming and concerned individuals. You can call or leave a message through our contact page. We can help you unravel what’s happened/happening, signpost support, and more. This is a listening service, not a counselling ione, and we do our utmost to

Demand on this service is high (but manageable!), so please do keep trying if we are unable to answer first time.

The primary number is +44(0) 7771 817015.

Your privacy: Our call handlers only take paper notes to help with the conversation and do not hold any formal records other than to assist with the call and to get back to people if needed.

Call costs are the standard costs to call a UK mobile, and we can accept calls on WhatsApp, which is cost free unless using your mobile data allowance.