Resource Sharing Project Helps Those Impacted by Sexual Assault

Bob Davis

Thank you for listening to Patchwork. Today, we're joined by two experts in the field of sexual assault. First, Kris Bein - she's the assistant director for the Resource Sharing Project at the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault. There she provides training and technical assistance to a wide range of advocacy agencies. She's been part of the anti-violence movement since 1995. Monika Johnson Hostler is the executive director of the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She's also the president of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence. That's a national public policy voice for State Territorial Sexual Assault Coalition that are working on behalf of survivors. She's been an activist in the social justice movement for over twenty-five years. Thank you both for being with us.

Before I get started, I just want to give a short disclaimer. Raising awareness about sexual assault often takes our frank conversations into areas that can be difficult to hear, especially for the many sexual assault survivors who are out there so I want to remind everyone that help is available twenty-four hours a day by calling 1-800-656-4673 or online at RAINN.org. That's R A I N N dot org (www.rainn.org). And we'll put those links on our website.

Monika, let me start with you first. Tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do in your day in, day out work to help victims of sexual assault. 

Monika Johnson Hostler

Thank you. So, as you noted, I'm the executive director of the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault, but I'm very fortunate that I get to hold multiple hats to work on behalf of those frontline workers at rape crisis centers and coalitions alike who work on behalf of survivors every day. And that's through two roles. One, as you noted, I'm the president of the National Alliance on Sexual Violence, which our focus is on the public policy and policy changes as it relates to sexual violence and anti-sexual violence work. And then the other is my resource sharing project hat, that which I share with my co speaker today, Kris Bein, where we work to provide technical assistance and support to state sexual assault and territorial coalitions. So I'm very fortunate that I get to hold multiple hats to represent our entire sexual violence work. 

Bob Davis

How did you get into this line of work? 

Monika Johnson Hostler

It started in college with a personal friend of mine was sexually assaulted and it literally started me on this journey. I had no knowledge or understanding of what rape crisis centers were in 1993 when this happened. And so it took me about a year and a half to actually be introduced to a local rape crisis center. From there, I started to volunteer with the rape crisis center and became very invested. And literally a week after graduation from undergrad, I took a job at a brand new rape crisis center and haven't it back since. 

Bob Davis

You must have helped many people over those years. 

Monika Johnson Hostler

I feel very fortunate that I that I've had the opportunity to work on behalf of many survivors over those years. 

Bob Davis

So many people across the nation are suffering in silence from trauma inflicted by sexual assault. Can you talk a little bit about how this crime can really change the trajectory of a life? 

Monika Johnson Hostler

Absolutely, I mean, if I go back to where I started with a college friend of mine, she didn't finish her college degree, we still know that to be true today. If our services don't exist, those who provide frontline services, whether it's at a local rape crisis center, a community based organization or campus sexual assault services that provides advocacy and support for that survivor, if that intervention and support for trauma doesn't happen, then we certainly, in my experience, have seen survivors leave college or take a break to sort through their own trauma. I will also note that for some survivors, that's not easy to do because their first form of sexual violence may have happened back home with a family member. So going back home may not also be an option for many of those survivors that I've worked with, campus sexual assault. We see the same thing right outside of the campus. We see it in military. And we also see in a community where what's that trauma happens to a person and they don't have the supportive environment, whether that's therapy, advocacy or legal support, whatever they choose in terms of their form of healing, then we see them start to depart from what is their normal life. So it could be work related. It could be relationship related. Right? They may stop interacting with the people that they know and have been around most if they are suffering from trauma. And so that's why I believe the work that we do at the local level, on the frontline level is most important to the survivors so that we can ensure that they get the services and support they need.

Bob Davis

What are some of the obstacles to getting those services? What prevents people from getting that help?

Monika Johnson Hostler

So I would say the biggest one is knowledge that the support and services are there. Many of us who do this work know for a fact that not everyone in our community are aware of our services for a multitude of reasons. Right? People don't know the many service providers in their community until they need the service like me. In 1993, rape crisis centers have been around for at least 20 years at that time, but I had never heard of them. But what I actually ended up volunteering around was one of the first ones in North Carolina. So it wasn't a service that I knew existed until I actually needed that service. So that's the first thing I would say is not everyone is aware of those services.

The other piece that I would say is a structural issue for some of our supportive services, like rape crisis centers, is there isn't always availability to immediate therapy in all of our communities. So some resources remain an issue for rape crisis centers and community based organizations in our community. So they can often readily offer immediate services if that survivor wants therapy, legal services or just as much for multiple reasons, a barrier. So it could be because sexual assault is a felony in all of our in every state. So therefore it's up to the prosecutor or district attorney to make a decision if they're going to actually take that case. So if a survivor sees the criminal legal system is the way for healing, that choice is not theirs. It's actually left up to the state to make that determination. And so we… it is important for us that we're very forthcoming in that information of survivors choose the criminal legal route. Civil justice is just as difficult. They're not a lot of attorneys who are trained on the multitude of ways that a survivor can seek civil relief, whether it's through an employer or a campus or landlord. Not all attorneys are aware of that, and they certainly are not free to survivors. So there's both the ability to actually seek the services, but also the financial barriers of those services being readily available to all survivors across our country.

Bob Davis

You mentioned people suffering in silence, and I oftentimes talk to people who didn't ask for help because they didn't want to get the criminal justice system involved. Can you talk a little bit about what kind of help is available there for folks? What's your what's your advice to people who maybe you're not taking care of themselves because they don't want to make more out of it with the criminal justice system than they feel comfortable? 

Monika Johnson Hostler

So, I certainly would say to all survivors that the first priority is their own supportive services.  And so the first thing I would say to all survivors is consider yourself first. We're trained, especially since the majority of survivors are women or people who identify as female. We're we're socialized, thought to seek supportive services and not to ask people for help. And so the first thing I would say is to consider yourself and seek out those services. And again, those services are available to all of our state and territories in some shape or form. They may not be right in your community, but in most cases they're in an adjacent community. So that's the first thing I would say is seek supportive services for you. And then if criminal legal is the route that a person wants to take, we can provide advocacy for that. But again, I would say the majority of survivors we see in our local programs are not seeking criminal legal outcomes. It really is the support of therapeutic and advocacy services that we provide our primary services we see people seeking. And so we encourage that people seek those services that are for them. There needs to move along in their healing journey is that you see it make a difference. 

Bob Davis

Do you encourage it because you see it helping them with that trajectory? 

Monika Johnson Hostler

Absolutely. Again, when any of us experience any form of trauma in our life, sexual violence, sexual trauma, it included, the best thing that we can do is ensure that we are advocating on behalf of our friends and family before we know they're survivors. You know, statistically, we're talking, one in four women, and so I think it's always important to make sure at least I do say, hey, we have over 1300 a rape crisis centers throughout this country, and that includes our US territories to normalize seeking services and to normalize taking care of ourselves is the primary way I see that is most important for us to… if we normalize it, then the survivors don't feel necessarily like they’re a burden, because that's the other thing for many of us. We were traumatized, as you noted, we think of what what's the impact to others first and I think for me again, to continue to normalize and prioritize their own supportive services. 

Bob Davis

Kris, let me ask you, Monika talked a little bit about the safety at home, maybe, maybe need to change the environment. Tell me about creating safe spaces. That's one of the themes for the Sexual Assault Awareness Month and it's something that it's very important to survivors. Talk a little bit about what that means to ensure safe spaces.

Kris Bein

It's a great question and a really complicated issue. One of the one of the things that makes sexual violence so different from domestic violence and so complicated in all of our responses is that sexual violence can be committed by anybody, in any part of the survivors life and in most cases, people who commit sexual violence choose somebody that they know, but that might be a dating partner. It could also be a family member, a child in the family, or another adult.

So when we think about safety planning for survivors, I think it's important for us to think about kind of in what part of their life did the sexual violence happen and how does it affect that? For someone who's a student we're going to want to talk a lot about safety in getting to school and just kind of navigating around school. But home is likely a safe and comfortable place for them,  as opposed to a survivor who was assaulted by a family member who might be scary and dangerous, but school is a haven or work is a good place to be. So I find safety planning is really individualized for each survivor and their fears. But also for a lot of survivors of sexual violence, especially survivors of long past sexual violence, when we think about safety, we're actually thinking more about just emotional safety in navigating everyday life and thinking about how to stay safe from reminders of the sexual violence or triggers.

Bob Davis

Monika, anything comes to mind when you hear that, what are your thoughts on safe spaces and helping people navigate? 

Monika Johnson Hostler

I mean, I couldn't agree more. I mean, to Kris's point and I alluded to earlier, you know, it's important to us in our advocacy that we help determine here from the survivor which space might be a safe space for them. So that one, we can figure out how to create those accommodations for them. It also help them navigate those waters of creating and maintaining the safe space. So some of the advocacy, if they're safe space is while they're on campus or in their campus community, then a part of our local advocacy is actually around ensuring that we can help navigate what they need in that safe space while in that community and vice versa if they're at home. Right? So if safe spaces at home and they want to return home, then connecting them with those resources while they're at home. 

Kris Bein

It's also why the structural work of doing anti-violence work is so important and thinking about the systems that allow sexual violence to happen. And the advocacy work around systems change because so many survivors can't get physical safety. Survivors who are in detention facilities often are not allowed by the facility to get any sort of distance from the person that hurt them. And so this is why I think it's so important, as Monika alluded to, that we're always kind of looking at both individual level responses and systems responses at the same time so that we can change the conditions that so many survivors are living in.

Bob Davis

Kris, your coalition is part of a national movement that connects resources at local, state, and national level. How is your group evolved over time with all that amazing talent? 

Kris Bein

Oh, gosh. Well, first of all, thank you for saying the amazing talent. Monika and I are truly blessed to work with just an amazing group of advocates. 

What I love about our team at the resource sharing project and what I love about coalitions that we work with and the local programs that we work with is that everything we have, everything we know, comes from survivors and comes from honoring the wisdom and tenacity, the creativity and the strength of survivors. And for our work at the resource sharing project, I sometimes like to joke around that we're obsessed with our middle name, that we just can't share enough things. But really, truly, all of our work is generated by advocates and by coalitions. I think that advocacy work in a lot of ways is simple, but it's not easy. There are a few really core important skills and approaches to learn and then to spend a lifetime mastering and honing. And what I love about being a TA provider for advocates is just getting to talk with them about their practice every day. 

Bob Davis

Monika, what about you what what's your perspective of these folks and the work? 

Monika Johnson Hostler

I mean, additional to their brilliance is, I believe, the beauty that we created at the resource sharing project is the vast not just knowledge and experience, but the nuance differences that we bring to the table, I believe, are so complementary that that that's what makes the sharing most valuable. Right? So when we are doing the resource sharing work and the training and technical assistance, not only is it steeped in survivors’ experiences and centering those experiences to ensure that all of our work centers survivor experiences and I think every single partner and person on our project believes that. But we also give people the space to be their best selves, right? So they bring their full selves, their own lived experiences into this work. So when we share with people, not only are they getting Monika or Kris if we're working with them together, but they're also getting the collective wisdom of everybody on our team. And I think that is the beauty.

Bob Davis

You know, the COVID experience has just been brutal for everyone in this mission space. Tell me what are your concerns about the folks on the front lines at this point? 

Kris Bein

You know, we've been seeing over the last year that pretty much every aspect of advocacy services has had to be redeveloped and redesigned. And I have been just overwhelmed by, again, the tenacity and creativity of our field that advocates across the country have been just looking at, like, OK, I'm not allowed to see survivors in person, how can I get an iPad to this person or a phone or figure out something else like. Advocacy programs are working around the clock to figure out how to make services work and how to still be compassionate and kind, how to be empowering and supporting of choices, even with all of these horrible barriers that COVID has put up in our way. And I also think this is a great opportunity to recognize they are so tired and so taxed. 

A lot of survivors have faced additional dangers, have faced huge emotional challenges over this last year of dealing with COVID and as advocates are providing so much support to them, they're exhausted and there is not enough support for the work that they're doing. 

Bob Davis

Monika, what about you? You must have seen some tough, tough moments. 

Monika Johnson Hostler

Yeah, I can't echo enough the level of flexibility for people, for our advocates are frontline workers who all of their work has been in person physically engaging with the survivors - I mean, that's central to their work, right? We answer the phone almost, you know, many of our first primary contact is through the phone. Everything after that becomes in person, whether it's the one on one advocacy, the systems advocacy, it's going in tandem with the survivor. So we take all of that away in an instant and we compound it with. Now, people are also insulated in their homes. Many of us who come to this work are also survivors. So not only our personal struggles become very real, but your family, whoever your caregiving for or if you're alone, all of those things personally come into play while I'm also trying to switch very quickly to a new form or methodology of providing advocacy. So whether it's our primary survivorship or secondary, because we provided services for so long and many of us have both primary and secondary trauma that we've experienced. We couple that with saying, “OK, now figure out how you're going to provide services and teach your child fifth grade math” or being isolated by yourself when we're used to traveling or being in person with people, and so not just the mental and physical exhaustion, but also the sadness that's attached to not being able to provide services to survivors in the ways that we're used to. And I think that's not a word we've used often, but it's what I hear, what I hear advocates talk to me. I hear them trying to manage what is an emotion we don't speak about often, which is sadness.

Bob Davis

What can we do to support those folks, I mean, it’s just if there's I would love to be able to put some wind in their sails somehow because they've been working so hard for so long. What's what can we do to help? 

Monika Johnson Hostler

I would say the first thing is acknowledging that, and I think, Kris, you said it beautifully, right? We know what to do. It's a simple formula, meaning we provide services that people need. We meet them where they are and we provide the services that that they share that they need from us. The nuances of do with that are far more complex because it's everything that we're doing is not within the control of the advocate or the survivor, right? We're depending on systems, whether that's a health care system or a mental health care system or criminal legal system or a college system. There are all of these external controls and in this case, COVID, is the biggest external control that we can't control. But yet we know the ingredients. And so just for me, acknowledging how difficult this work is and how beautifully people have excelled under severe, uncertain, unforeseen circumstances and so I think for me, if there's anything, it's an acknowledgment that they, too, are frontline workers. And we have the same level of gratitude and appreciation. And what we know what comes along with frontline workers is they're overworked, underpaid and certainly unappreciated.

Bob Davis

Very well said. Anything give you hope out of COVID? Have we learned anything that might be a silver lining to this, anything that you see on the horizon that maybe we're doing differently or better that we wouldn't have been pushed to do a year ago?

Monika Johnson Hostler

I would certainly say that there are a number of silver linings. One, we realized that there are other ways to work with, given all the tools. So many of our centers didn't have tools to go remote. 

I can certainly say the centers that I know, not just in North Carolina, but in my region alone in the Resource Sharing Project, not every advocate at the local level had a computer, so we had to figure out how to get that. There is no assumption that every advocate had high speed broadband Internet services at home. We had to figure those things out. The other thing that I would say, and I just heard this from a group of advocates last week, is so many survivors weren't comfortable with therapy or support groups even. And I have several of my local centers who've said that the lessons that they've learned by being virtual is their support groups are now overflowing because it allows some level of anonymity, right? Because they can be virtual. Sometimes they could just be the boxes. Sometimes they can choose to turn their cameras on. And so it certainly has opened up the number of survivors who are accessing some of our more clinical therapeutic services because they are remote and they're accessible because now we've tried to create this, you know, online community that is accessible to everyone. So I think that's certainly a huge silver lining that came out of this for many of us. 

Kris Bein

Yeah, I would echo that, Monika, that the flexibility and the creativity that we've, as is an entire globe, have been forced into have led to some really great lessons about creativity and flexibility. 

One thing that I think advocates need and is also a silver lining is that flexibility of support. So we're learning that advocates can support survivors without being in an office together and that they need stuff to do that. And yeah, as Monika said, the creativity of doing support groups online and therapy online and what it looks like to use platforms like Zoom, I think we're learning a lot about new skills in building rapport, building trust, building safety with folks. And I think for me, that just opens up more and more possibilities for the future in a post pandemic world.

Monika Johnson Hostler

I think one of the other things which we knew, but I think we certainly have been holding on to and cherishing is the level of resiliency of survivors when given the resources and support they need, is absolutely amazing to both witness and be a part of. And that's and I you know, one of the outcomes of COVID is cherishing the wins because so much of our work is filled with the sadness and the hurt and the harm that's caused in people's lives, that we don't ever take a moment to acknowledge the winds. And I certainly personally have seen the number of survivors both on and online platforms and personally say this has been helpful because so many people felt hopeless as a result of it. So it does allow so many of us to be more transparent in our emotions. And I think that just sharing those winds has been a huge, I would say, support for me and my own mental health and wellbeing. And we've been able to experience that resiliency across the board. 

Bob Davis

Thank you very much.

Kris, before we close, let me ask you, please share with our listeners what kind of resources you all have for the advocates and others doing the work out there.

Kris Bein

Our website, which is www.resourcesharingproject.org is just a treasure trove of publications. We have a section under our SASP TA that will be very helpful for any listeners who work for a state or territory administering agency. Our section for rural advocates is focused on supporting rural advocates, but really all of the tools there are helpful for any advocate working in a duel domestic violence and sexual violence organization. And then finally, we have an enormous section for coalitions to support their work. I invite everyone to visit our website and have a wander around. 

Bob Davis

Great. Thank you very much. Thank you both for joining us. I really appreciate you taking the time. 

Monika Johnson Hostler

Thank you. Thank you both for doing this. 

Kris Bein

Our pleasure. This was this was great. 

Bob Davis

And thank you for listening to Patch work to find contact information for the coalition in your area, you can go to our website www.justice.gov/ovw. You'll find a list of all the state and territorial coalitions right there. We want to hear from you. Please let us know how you like this episode and what you'd like to hear on future episodes. You can email us at Patchwork@usdoj.gov, tweet us at @OVWJustice, or you can just give us a call. (202) 307-6026.

From everyone at OVW, thanks for listening.