Women Shining Magazine Women Shining Spring 2018 | Page 19

Interviewer: I must say that it is wonderful to hear that you work with all ages, yet disturbing to think about as young as 3. Can you tell us how it works when you attend a recent assault? Charlene: If it is brand new and in crisis, we will provide grounding and safety planning. Sometimes with clients that is as far as we get. Having said that there may be other things they have to deal with such as housing, addictions, and mental illness components which are outside of our scope - in that case we refer to other resources. One of our key pieces is that we ensure they are connected to our community resources and members. I think there is a myth in the non profit world that organizations are the support and comm unity. So if our clients see us as their community, then that is not a good thing. They need to have a much broader community, so one of our goals is to make sure they are connected to community. Interviewer: I understand that you and your staff work 8:30am until 4:30pm. What happens after 4:30pm to victims of sexual violence? Charlene: We have SART (Sexual Assault Response Team). I am a firm believer that we are a resource provider; we are not a community. We are a small chunk of somebody’s story. We are a part of their support and we actually do a disservice to our clients if we don’t find ways to help get them connected to people outside of us. Interviewer: So after you see them through the first few hours after the trauma, where do you refer or where do you send them or how do you help them? Charlene: With historical abuse or sexual assault we create safety plans and grounding, but typically we start doing more intense trauma work rather quickly because, usually, when people show up here after a long hiatus from when it happened, it is because stuff is starting to come up for them and they really want to do that work. 17