OUR ROLE
EDUCATION
The Family Survival Trust offers regular public events to educate about cults. Please see Activities.
The links below are recommended reading on the topic of cults.
cultresearch.org/recommended-reading/
www.alexandrastein.com/bibliography.html
SUPPORT
TFST hosts monthly support groups which are attended by cult survivors and sometimes affected relatives. These are held on Zoom, normally on the third Tuesday of the month. If you, or someone you know would like to come, please contact by email at: thefamilysurvivaltrustuk@gmail.com. For more information see Support Group.
POLICY
We are not a campaigning organisation, but take any opportunity to remind government and media of the damage caused by cults, and the need for prevention and regulation.
We have recently been promised a meeting with Home Office officials to put our point of view. In particular we believe that the recent Coercive Control legislation should be widened from the domestic context to cover to which it is presently limited, to encompass the much greater problem of abusive behaviour within organisations. We regularly meet with concerned members of both houses of Parliament.
We often cite the example of France, who not only maintain an inter-ministerial committee on cults (MIVILUDES) advising the Prime Minister on all aspects of the problem, but who have passed legislation (Loi About-Picard) criminalising cultic behaviour. Their lead has been followed by Belgium and some German states.
LINKS
The following organisations maintain websites which may be of interest to those looking for more information about cults. Their listing here does not constitute an endorsement by The Family Survival Trust, which is not responsible for the content of the websites given below:
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FECRIS (Fédération européenne des centres de recherche et d’information sur le sectarisme – English: European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism). A European federation of groups assisting victims of totalitarian cults, FECRIS has participatory/consultative status with the Council of Europe: www.fecris.org
Note that this website contains a list of member and associate organisations with their own websites.
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MIVILUDES (Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaires – English: Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combatting Cultic Deviances). French government agency which monitors and deals with cult abuse and misdemeanours: www.miviludes.gouv.fr
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CIAOSN (Centre d’information et d’avis sur les organisations sectaires nuisibles – English: Centre for Information and Advice on Harmful Sectarian Organisations). Belgian government agency which monitors and advises on cult abuse and misdemeanours: www.ciaosn.be
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AGS (Die Arbeitsgruppe Scientology – English: Scientology Working Group)German government agency of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg Interior Ministry, which monitors and advises on cult abuse and misdemeanours, with a special interest in Scientology: www.hamburg.de/ag-scientology
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DialogCentre UK – Offers understanding, information and help for those caught up in abusive cult: www.dialogcentre.org.uk