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Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault's
Programs and Services

Community and Prevention Education

Crisis Services

Mental Health Services

Su Voz Vale

Accessing Safety

 

Community and Prevention Education

The Community and Prevention Education Programs offer prevention education and training to youth, and the general public about the issues of sexual violence. Professional training is also available for professionals who may come in contact with sexual violence survivors, such as teachers, counselors, health care workers, probation officers and social workers.

The public health approach, which looks at the negative impact sexual violence has on the health of individuals and communities, is our primary model. We also incorporate other models, in particular a social norms model, in which we encourage discussion about the messages surrounding sexual violence, gender roles and sexuality that program participants receive from the world around them and how they process those messages.

The Community and Prevention Education Department presents to youth grades 6-12, throughout Tucson, Pima County and in the schools of the Tohono O'odham Nation and Pascua Yaqui Tribe, as well as to adults and professionals in Pima County and other parts of Southern Arizona. The Sexual Violence Prevention Education Program, the youth education component, includes targeted, multi-modal educational sessions, containing a variety of instructional methods designed to reach all types of learners at developmentally appropriate levels.

The Center is committed to:

  • promoting awareness of sexual assault, abuse, coercion, and harassment
  • improving community response to victims of sexual assault, abuse, coercion, and harassment through education and training
  • supporting other efforts in Southern Arizona that contribute to the prevention of and improved response to sexual assault, abuse, coercion, and harassment.

Crisis Services

  • Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault operates a 24-hour crisis line through which callers receive immediate crisis intervention and assistance from crisis staff and specially trained volunteer advocates. Callers can also receive information about our other services for on-going support as indicated by their need as well as referral sources if necessary. The crisis line is accessible through a toll-free number and a number dedicated for TTY/TDD response. The 24-hour crisis line serves all of Southern Arizona. Bilingual services are available 24 hours a day - 7 days a week. Walk-in clients receive the same array of services as do crisis line callers.
  • As part of the Sexual Assault Response Service (SARS), a partnership among Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault, Pima County Attorney's Office, all 13 law enforcement agencies, Pima County Victim Witness, two crime labs, and the community hospitals, our specially trained advocates and forensic examiners respond to recent victims of sexual assault in all area emergency departments. We currently collaborate with Northwest Medical Center and Tucson Medical Center to provide crisis services, specialized sexual assault medical forensic examinations and evidence collection in each of these hospitals 24 hours a day - 7 days a week.

Mental Health Services

The Mental Health Services Program of the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault provides mental health services and operates as an outpatient clinic licensed by the Arizona Department of Health Services. Individual, couple, family, and group psychotherapy is provided for the female or male survivor of the assault, significant others and family members.

The focus of treatment is on the psychological, relational, behavioral, cognitive, physical, and spiritual consequences of sexual violation and violence. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) may also supplement therapy. Services initiate and reinforce the healing process and hasten the client's empowerment.

Master's level therapists provide services. The clinical team, through its specialized training of interns and adjunct therapists, is able to enhance the amount of unique, specialized service available in our community. Clinical staff is specially trained in the areas of trauma and sexual violence. Some services offered are bi-lingual and bi-cultural. Services are offered at two locations.

Su Voz Vale -Your Voice Counts

Su Voz Vale is a bilingual/bicultural program offering services to victims of sexual violence from Tucson's south, west and southwest areas and the City of South Tucson. Su Voz Vale offers a variety of services, all available in English and/or Spanish. The program is located at the El Pueblo Neighborhood Center.

Services Include:

  • Crisis Services
  • Community and Prevention Education
  • Mental Health Services

Cafecitos

  • Cafecitos are informal and educational gatherings of women held at the Su Voz Vale office once a month. One objective of the Cafecito is to educate those present about the issues of sexual and relationship violence. Another is for survivors present to hear that the violence they have experienced is not their fault, and that help is available.

Amigas/os del Pueblo

  • The Amigas/os del Pueblo are community volunteers who are trained to be first responders and do outreach for the Su Voz Vale program. They are trained to be empathetic to victims/survivors and to address sexual violence in the community.

Battered Immigrant Women
Su Voz Vale/Your Voice Counts participates in the Tri-County Battered Immigrant Women's Taskforce. The three counties involved are Pima, Cochise and Santa Cruz. The goal of the taskforce is to improve the access to culturally appropriate services for battered immigrant women, thereby ensuring their rights under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The project's focus includes conducting a needs assessment of culturally relevant and accessible services, education and training for professionals in the criminal justice, medical and victims services systems on the rights provided under VAWA for this community, the development of a strategy to raise community awareness of this issue, and enhancement of victim advocacy throughout rural Pima County.

The Taskforce operates through a federal grant in partnership with the Governor's The Governor's Office for Children, Youth and Families which coordinates this project.

Accessing Safety - Promising Practices in Serving Crime Victims with Disabilities

People with disabilities are statistically 2 to 3 times more likely to become victims of sexual violence than people in the general population.

The Center Against Sexual Assault, while already serving people with disabilities, recognized this disproportionate victimization rate and the special needs of the disability communities and successfully pursued funding to address this issue: a three-year grant from the Department of Justice/Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) to provide services to people with disabilities.

The grant was awarded through SafePlace, a sexual assault and domestic violence center in Austin, TX which is contracted through OVC to administer the funding. The Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault is one of ten sites out of nearly 100 submitted proposals across the country chosen by SafePlace to receive this funding. The project while no longer funded through the grant still supports sexual violence survivors with disabilities by:

  • facilitating a Southern Arizona Sexual Assault Disability Coalition;
  • developing a "Best Practice" model for working with sexual violence victims/survivors with disabilities by conducting an internal needs assessment and an external community-based needs assessment;
  • expanding the ability of crisis and psychotherapy services to meet the needs of sexual violence victims/survivors with disabilities through a series of trainings; and
  • creating an outreach plan to increase sexual violence services to the disability community in southern Arizona.
  • creating and distributing a resource manual for people with disabilities

Getting Real: Young Men Talk

This program targets boys aged 11-18, temporarily residing at the Pima County Juvenile Residence Hall through workshops designed to prevent the attitudes and behaviors that lead to sexual violence, abuse, and harassment in this high-risk population. Through interactive "conversations" and training by our community educator, these young men will develop the skills to avoid inappropriate social and "dating" behaviors and to model healthy and respectful behavior for others. There will also be an opportunity for leadership development and peer to peer education to sustain and expand the program's reach.


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Page last updated on October 31, 2006.

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