New tools available for sexual assault victims
There’s a new online resource available for sexual assault victims and their loved ones.
The Survivor Toolkit is a website that hosts a series of videos created to guide citizens through the range of services available in the area. Each video reenacts a step someone would experience if they came forward with an allegation of sexual assault.
City police and community partners such as Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre, PARN and Victim Services, launched the website Friday at Market Hall.
Peter Williams is the Survivor Toolkit project manager and city police community development and engagement co-ordinator.
By showcasing the journey a victim would experience after coming forward, many of the questions they may have about the process are addressed.
“Part of what holds people back from reporting is the uncertainty and unknowing of what’s going to happen to them if they chose to take that step,” he said.
The website is also an informative tool to help the community engage in discussions about sexual violence.
“We can’t work on prevention and erasing sexual violence and harassment until we’re having more conversations about it,” Williams said.
As part of the Survivor Toolkit project, city police officers and staff at community partner organizations underwent training to improve the police response to victims.
The trauma-informed training
included information about the neurobiology of trauma, for example, to help officers understand how victims remember traumatic events.
Officers haven’t always had a great track record in that regard, Williams said, so they’re owning up to that reality and taking the needed steps to improve their approach.
“Hopefully they’ll see that police have been working to change the way that they work with victims/survivors,” he said.
Funding for the project was provided by the ministry of community safety and correctional services.
The Survivor Toolkit website is www.survivortoolkit.ca