“I thought you were going home?” said one ER nurse to another. “No, I have another whore to deal with tonight,” said the other.
This was the story Maija told about her post rape treatment here in Milwaukee. She was 16 at the time. Another anonymous woman said that she had more follow up when she bought a stereo than she received after she reported her rape.
A representative of Forge talked about the “invisible” men and transgender people who represent about 1/3 of all sexual assaults but make up less than 5% of people who receive health and follow up services like counseling.
Stories like these is what prompted the Milwaukee Commission on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault to schedule a planning session of more than 80 local women and a few men to talk about the urgent need to improve services to the survivors of sexual assault including women and men and children. I was really proud to be among these people who represent many of our grant partners (Sojourner Family Peace Center, the Women of Color Network, the Healing Center, the Latina Resource Center, and more), as well as representatives of the Milwaukee Police Department and the Prosecutors office.
What I learned is that, unlike other communities, our support services are incredibly disjointed. Survivors have to go from place to place and if they are lucky enough to be assigned an advocate, that person is likely to be on only a short part of the journey with them. Mostly people give up.
The goal of bringing us together is to create a culturally relevant “system” that engages the many community resources into a seamless response system that treats all survivors with the respect and dignity they deserve. Watch for updates on this blog as the plan develops.
(Did you notice that I use the word survivors instead of victims? It’s more empowering. Let’s just hope they “survive” the services.)