Published on April 02, 2006
Sexual Assault Services Program
Sexual assault is the most under-reported crime in the country. The most recent crime victim report indicates an average of 200,000 women are sexually assaulted annually most often (76%) by someone they know. A shortage of state-level funding caused by budget cuts in recent years has led many rape crisis centers to reduce staff size, cut services such as counseling to victims and hotline hours, and cut programs to underserved populations, some of which experience sexual assault at a very high rate.
Many victims of rape and sexual assault are unsure of their options or afraid of navigating the criminal justice process, the medical system and psychological aftermath alone. However, rape crisis centers and other organizations help ease the confusion and fear by offering medical, legal, and psychological support to victims and their families and friends.
The Sexual Assault Services Program area, authorized at $50 million per year in VAWA 2005, provides the first federal funding stream dedicated entirely to the provision of direct services for victims of sexual violence. However, to date, the SASA program has never been funded. It is imperative that rape crisis centers, state, territorial and tribal coalitions, and culturally specific organizations gain access to federal funds that can be used to provide services to sexual assault victims.
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WHY SEXUAL ASSAULT SERVICES MATTER
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If you are a survivor of sexual violence or someone who provides services to survivors, please use our webform below to post your personal comments about why full funding for Sexual Assault Services Act programs is so important We'll compile your comments into a booklet that will be hand-delivered to legislative offices.
Some tips about writing personal comments.
1. If you are a survivor, make your comments as personal as possible. I know its hard to re-visit the event, and don't go any deeper than you feel safe doing, but if you can, describe what happened to you, how old you were, the perpetrator's relationship to you, how you felt, and why having sexual assault services available was or would have been a good thing. If you were able to access services, describe specifically how they were helpful. If you were not able to access services, explain the impact of that. Please do not identify anybody by name in your comments.
If you are a service provider or someone who works with victims/survivors tell about the work you do, how it makes a difference and why this funding matters. Its especially powerful to tell the story of how your services made a difference for one person or family. Or write a diary of a day in your life as a service provider- what specifically did you do? (hospital call in the middle of the night for at teen, court at 9am, support group at noon where X happened, etc. You may also wish to tell about funding cuts or cuts in programming that your agency has experienced. But please, don't just talk about the money. Talk about the tragedies you are witnessing and the lives you are touching. Make it real, so they cannot turn away and pretend not to know..
My Comments |
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