The phone rings at 7:00 a.m. It’s the crisis line asking that a Trauma Response Advocate (TRA) go out to the local hospital to provide support to a client. The SART nurse initiated the call.
SART is an acronym for Sexual Assault Response Team. Our advocates (TRAs) go out on these calls 24 hours a day/7 days a week.
Help and support are available
If you, or someone else you know, has experienced a sexual assault, call our 24-hour Crisis Line at (209) 577-5980 or our business line at (209) 524-4331.
Our client now must make the decision as to whether to allow an intrusive exam while reeling from the trauma of being assaulted. Their clothes are taken for evidence. They are offered medicine for STDs and HIV. They are asked intimate questions by strangers. There are pictures taken anywhere on their body that may hold a clue as to whether the assailant can be prosecuted. The act of taking these pictures exacerbates their trauma.
We are there if the client wants and needs this support.
We answer their questions, and we provide information about this process. Sometimes, the only thing we can do is stand shoulder to shoulder with them in silence while they process this life-altering event.
It can be (with consent of course) as simple as holding their hand or as complex as helping them navigate the societal guilt and shame that goes hand-in-hand with being a victim of sexual violence. This can be even more heartbreaking if the client does not have a support system.
This is not a television show, this is real life.
HAVEN advocates offer this support daily. We also provide many other services too.
We step into these situations with hearts and minds wide open, always sensitive to meeting our clients where they are at; not where society thinks they should be.
We need your help.
We need community support and donations to continue this work. Please help!