Women Shining Magazine Women Shining Spring 2018 | Page 20

Interviewer: Can you tell us more about SART?
Charlene: SART is a newly created team. We
had it years ago, and I know, because I was a
volunteer on that team when I was in my 20’s.
Basically it is a volunteer team of 2, at the
moment only the weekends, but that will grow.
We will go to the hospital if someone has been
sexually assaulted. We will sit with them the
entire time they are there. We help provide
information, sit through the forensics kit with
them, and connect them with other resources
if they want us to.
Interviewer: How are you made aware of
the assault?
Charlene: The only way is if they attend to the
hospital and the hospital offers the service. If
they say yes, and consent, then the hospital
calls us. However, the goal is to extend that,
so that RCMP and other community providers
will have the phone number. We are slowly
changing things.
In our community we have two Victim Services
programs - Police and Community based. The
community based is ran through our office. We
get all the referrals for anything to do with
sexual violence.
Our mandate through community victim services
is to help them through the court system, so it
makes sense for us to be that initial connection.
Typically, if they decide to go through the court
system and they want information they come
through us anyway.
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Interviewer: What keeps you here. You
mentioned you started with SART (Sexual
Assault Response Team) - how did you end up in
this chair - the Coordinator of this organization?
Charlene: It feels a little full circle. I
volunteered for KSACC when I was 21 years
old. I was doing my degrees in psychology and
sociology and I was looking for a volunteer
experience and came across KSACC. I applied
to be a member of their crisis line. We were
a 24 hour crisis line at the time. There was an
opportunity if you worked the crisis line to
volunteer to work the SART Team, I did that.
I did some volunteer
counselling and I loved it!
I never forgot my experience at KSACC. I can
honestly say that working with women and
seeing that we could re-write the story - seeing
the importance of that immediate connection
at the hospital, or on that phone call where
someone is needing help, really resonated with
me. We were not the saviours - they were - but
we could be a little bit of a facilitator, helping
them to re-write their story.
I moved away and eventually moved back and
had been working in the area for 7 years and
received a phone call that this position was
coming up. I immediately applied for it!