Mahoning Valley Sexual Assault Response Team

For years communities across the United States have struggled with how to improve their response to sexual assault. From the reporting officer to the local hospital to the local prosecutor, protocol varies from region to region. Problems are often amplified in rural and remote areas where resources are not typically at hand.

Among the most popular approach to aide this issue is to implement a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART). A SART, as defined by National Sexual Violence Resource Center, is “a collection of professional service providers and officials that respond essentially as a group, and in a timely fashion, to the various needs of rape victims.”

Core team members on the Mahoning Valley SART include professionals from the fields of law enforcement, victim advocacy/victim services, prosecutors or legal affiliates, and health care. The roles of each team member vary, but the goal remains the same – to ensure each survivor is addressed thoroughly by means of team and community care.

The SART concept is that communities can design these teams specifically to overcome local problems and build upon local strengths. The SART reflects a collaborative approach that works to aid our community coordinate victim-centered responses to sexual violence, focus on the causes, consequences, and issues regarding sexual violence, to collaborate with other organizations that support SART, improve public policy, and to provide community outreach and education regarding sexual violence.