YWCA to provide sexual assault services at Vaden

By Ray Delgado

The university has entered into an agreement with YWCA of Silicon Valley to provide services and assistance 24 hours a day to Stanford students, staff, faculty, spouses, domestic partners, summer students and campers who are victims of sexual assault. The YWCA Sexual Assault Center at Stanford University will be located at Vaden Health Center and will begin operations May 2.

Officials are optimistic that the center will help improve access to services, bolster reporting and enhance prevention efforts related to sexual assault, dating violence, domestic abuse and stalking.

"We're hoping that this new service will provide a comprehensive and coordinated response system that will make things easier for the survivor to report the incident and receive support and assistance throughout the process," said Carole Pertofsky, director of health promotion services at Vaden. "The Y will provide an advocate who will help the survivor make decisions about possible next steps, and who also can help coordinate access to law enforcement, legal and judicial services, as well as medical, emotional and spiritual support," she noted. "We will also continue to strengthen our prevention and outreach programs, and hope that students continue their involvement as peer educators and activists."

Services will be provided to students, staff, faculty and other campus affiliates, including those who participate in camps on campus, regardless of religion, gender or sexual orientation.

Currently, sexual assault services are provided by a team of specially trained staff from Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). According to Dr. Ira Friedman, Vaden's director, the new center will provide victims with more direct access via a dedicated 24-hour telephone line to an organization that has a history of providing these services in the central Santa Clara County.

"The YWCA has a long and excellent track record in assisting county residents who have experienced a sexual assault," Friedman said. "I am very pleased that these excellent services will be much more accessible to members of the campus community."

The YWCA of the Mid-Peninsula provided rape crisis services from its Alma Street location in Palo Alto for nearly three decades, until the facility closed in 2003. Stanford will provide YWCA staffers with office space, furniture and computer access.

"We are very excited to come on as collaborators with a campus such as Stanford," said Sandy Davis, director of the rape crisis center. "Statistics tell us that one in three women will be raped in their lifetime and the majority of them are co-ed age. Therefore, we're very pleased to be providing services to this campus."

On April 21, the campus community is invited to a reception at 7 p.m. at the Women's Community Center to launch this year's Take Back the Night march, an annual international rally and march organized in local communities to raise awareness about violence against women, children and families. The campus reception and march are cosponsored by Vaden and the Women's Center.

In addition to Vaden's arrangement with the YWCA, Dean of Student Affairs Greg Boardman will convene an advisory committee on sexual assault to review campus policies protocols, programs and services related to campus sexual assault.

"The board is to help create a campus culture that consistently promotes compliance with the Stanford Policy on Sexual Assault," Boardman said. "The board membership will represent a broad diversity of students, staff and faculty, who offer expertise and interest related to sexual assault issues, including prevention education, response and reporting."

The YWCA is the one of the oldest international women's organizations in the world, with autonomous community-based associations in more than 100 countries. These local organizations promote social and economic justice and encourage women to take leadership roles in order to obtain a common vision of peace, justice, freedom, dignity for all people and the elimination of racism.

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