Offering support for survivors of sexual assault

The numbers are staggering.

During a nine-month period in 2021-2022, the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region (SASC) saw demand for its services skyrocket in comparison to the same time frame the previous year.

Individual counselling requests for survivors of sexual violence rose by 62%; SASC saw its waiting list increase by 30% for that counselling. Participation in closed support groups grew by 148% while there was a 362% increase in participation in open support groups. 

The meteoric rise in demand for services can be attributed to two impactful global events, the post-#MeToo era and the COVID-19 pandemic -- the former helping empower impacted individuals to speak up and speak out in droves, and the latter serving to exacerbate trauma of sexual abuse survivors in many instances.

“In 2017, 40 people reaching out was a crisis. And then we got to 2019 and our list almost toppled 200 survivors,” said Laura Hill, Development and Communications Coordinator with SASC, which has been transforming lives in the community for more than three decades. “It was time to build a strategy … what are some other options we could offer folks?”

In September 2019, SASC started offering in-person groups and workshops regularly, having previously been limited to mostly one-on-one support due to staffing constraints. Thanks to funding from Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF), SASC was able to hire a dedicated Group and Workshop Coordinator, Adria Joel. The new programming “really started to flourish” over those next few months, according to the staff at SASC.

“SASC group workshops have been transformational in my recovery and growth. They've helped me to really believe I'm not alone and to get out of my own head trapped in trauma and into a place of healing and growth. I'm in a better place now to understand the effects of trauma for myself and to help others overcome their traumatic experiences as well.” -- Survivor

Of course, the pandemic’s arrival in March 2020 meant life as we all once knew it was about to drastically change.

For SASC, a timely lifeline arrived that same year in the form of $20,000 courtesy of the Fund for Gender Equality, a collaboration between Community Foundations of Canada and the Equality Fund, which is supported by the Government of Canada. WRCF was one of 21 community foundations across Canada participating in the collaborative fund aimed at supporting organizations at the heart of the women’s movement and helping to address the issue of women and gender-diverse individuals having been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

Through this fund, WRCF was able to provide $240,000 locally to support nine organizations. In SASC’s case, their portion of the grant money allowed them to sustain its relatively new groups and workshops programming throughout the upheaval brought on by the pandemic. 

“These groups really are lifesaving and I’m so grateful I’ve been able to connect with really talented facilitators and wonderful survivors. Especially during Covid-19, I feel less isolated and shame around my trauma work.” -- Survivor

SASC provides free wraparound services and support to people and their families who have experienced sexual violence. Its recently introduced additional supports include a series of weekly and monthly workshops anchored by the Alone Together group, a weekly drop-in meeting that organizers describe as “lifesaving” and “a place of refuge for many people.”

Many of their groups and workshops have been amplified and leveraged through partnerships within the community including groups such as SPECTRUM, Button Factory Arts, and Focus For Ethnic Women. These groups are also creating space for 2SLGBTQIA+ and racialized communities, said SASC’s Director of Services Andrea Arthur-Brown.

Every workshop is offered virtually. Staff says the transition from in-person to virtual was relatively seamless thanks to the previous grant money from WRCF and subsequent hiring of Joel, which meant much of the programming was established and in place before the start of the pandemic.

“I’m just so grateful that there was technology available. You’re able to so easily have conversations over technology and have a group of 10-20 people and still be able to effortlessly talk to each other,” said Joel of the move to virtual. “We found that actually it offers a level of accessibility that wasn’t there for the in-person.”

The groups and workshops provide a unique collaborative form of healing.

“In individual counselling, I think a lot of the time you can get that affirmation from your counsellor that you’re not alone in this, but to have other survivors confirm that and that, ‘yes, I’ve been there’ -- and everyone’s at a different place in their healing journey, so different people can pick each other up and encourage each other along the way,” Joel said. “Having that lifeline, that connection. I think survivors are spectacular people and they’re able to create that supportive environment.”

Arthur-Brown oversees frontline services including groups and workshops. She and Executive Director Sara Casselman have long sought to provide programming in a collective setting and the growth of these groups and workshops has provided some validation to that vision.

“I can’t tell you enough how much transformation I’ve personally witnessed in groups with folks coming together,” Arthur-Brown said. “You’ve probably heard our motto, ‘You Are Not Alone,’ and you can say that, but in groups, that is evidence that they are really not alone. Being in a space with other people, the validation that happens when they hear someone else in the group talk about a trigger point or a symptom that they also experience, it’s kind of like, think about if you were deaf and you heard music for the first time.

“The Friday alone together group has honestly turned my life around. When I first attended the group I was in a really bad place, and I couldn't even leave the house. I was abusing substances and was really stuck. The Friday group really made me feel like I didn't have to live like that. I am so grateful to have access to these affordable healing modalities.” -- Survivor

“It’s so validating and normalizing for other folks when they’re in a group with other survivors,” Arthur-Brown added. “It’s been very, very useful. There’s something for everyone.”

Regardless of the status of government restrictions related to COVID-19, SASC plans to continue offering services virtually as well as “in-person when it’s safe to do so.” That means added pressure on their already limited staff is expected.

“We’ve been able to expand our staffing a bit with some of the generous donations that we’ve received over the last two years,” Arthur-Brown said. “We hope that will continue and that people will continue to think about us and the work that we’ve been doing so we can keep our staffing up.”

“The timing of funding the groups and workshops program was epic,” she added. “We wouldn’t have had this program without the support of the WRCF. I know it’s a relationship that we value.”

Added Hill: “(Our centre) was one of the first sexual assault support centres in the province that was able to offer online group therapy and a lot of that was largely thanks to the support from WRCF.”

To learn more about SASC, visit: www.sascwr.org.


Note: This story was written prior to Cambridge & North Dumfries Community Foundation and Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation unifying to become Waterloo Region Community Foundation. Although the story was created by KWCF, we have updated the organization name to WRCF throughout the story.

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