The leaders of Lane County’s main support resource for people who’ve been sexually assaulted are concerned about the potential for a loss of federal funding.
Sexual Assault Support Services, or SASS, started 34 years ago at the University of Oregon. It provides a variety of services for survivors of sexual violence. Martina Shabram is Executive Director of SASS.
“Our core services are a 24/7 crisis and support line, so like that sounds, it is 24/7, 365 (days a year),” she said. “It never turns off. We also provide round the clock emergency medical advocacy, that's in the emergency departments in the acute aftermath of sexual violence when a person is making decisions about acute care, forensic evidence collection, etc. And we provide legal advocacy and accompaniment through the court proceedings that a person might be involved in if there's a criminal case or through civil law, if they're seeking protective orders.”
Shabram said SASS also offers transitional housing, support groups, and educational resources. She said SASS gets most of its funding from state and federal sources. But it also depends a lot on local donors. Later this month, the nonprofit is holding an event called "SASS Talks."
“It’s a short mini-speaker series. The theme is ‘building a culture of consent’,” said Syd Reed, the Prevention and Development Supervisor with SASS. “We really wanted to create a space where people felt like they had the opportunity to buy into creating a culture of consent and how to have some ideas and inspiration about how that looks for individual people, and in different aspects of society, and work, and friendship, and things like that.”
Reed said they’ll have speakers and a silent auction with prize baskets put together by friends and family and local businesses.
Shabram said the event was inspired by a young woman named Jane Brinkley, who was a volunteer and advocate with SASS.
“So tragically we lost her three years ago to suicide,” she said. “When we thought about creating this event, one of the things that Jane had often really wanted to do is to create a speaker space for people to talk about what it means, especially as young folks or as people working with young folks, to create a culture of consent, to fight back against a culture of sexual violence. So this event really is in her honor and in her memory. She stays really close to our hearts at SASS and we think about her often. And I think that her legacy at SASS is really about bringing together a community of really engaged and active people. Her family has remained really close to us. It was her family and friends who have donated the majority of our auction items, who have supported this program from its inception and who really believe in the work that she did at SASS and the work that SASS continues to do.”
Shabram said the bulk of their funding comes from federal and state sources. She said they don’t know exactly how they’ll be affected by the cuts to federal programs. Shabram said there’s a lot of uncertainty now, especially for an organization like SASS, which supports people who are survivors of sexual violence. And the White House is now home to a man who was found liable in a sexual abuse case.
“But we can't say that there were never people who have engaged in acts of sexual violence who have held the highest offices in our land, right, who have been in power. We know that all types of people commit sexual violence and we know that all types of people experience sexual violence,” she said. “And also, it does feel different right now. It does. And I think that the overall emotional strain that people are under is significant. We're seeing a pretty substantial disruption in social safety nets at every level, and that has a real and material effect both on what services are available.
"We just saw in this community that we're losing one of our core services, CAHOOTS. It also has, I think, a psychological effect on our whole community.”
SASS Talks: “Building a Culture of Consent” is Saturday, April 26 from noon to 3 p.m. at 255 Madison in Eugene.
If you or someone you love is experiencing a crisis, call or text 9-8-8 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
