Work overload

Something about the holiday season makes work seem busier. In our case this is actually true. The entire office has been busy. And, that's not necessarily because there have been more sexual assaults, but more people reporting. Our office is doing some amazing work with keeping up with our clients and making sure their needs are being met. Our counseling center is booming. We are working out all our kinks and getting our procedures in order to make the office run as efficiently as possible. Corey, Janet, and I have been trying to get more public awareness going. Corey has recently taken over our volunteer program. She is currently working up a volunteer brochure to explain what we do here at RCASA and then plans on reaching out to the University kids in the area as well as local churches. Janet has taken over keeping track of court advocacy. Making sure we all stay on target with what it means to be a court advocate. She's like the mom of our office. I'm currently trying to make contact with a couple of local high school to start up a Teens Against Sexual Assault program. It would be similar to a peer group. They would help contribute to public awareness efforts on campus as well as maintain some of our agency information in case anyone ever needs a way of getting in touch with us.

We recently held a training at the Rappahannock Regional Justice Academy on the Prison Rape Elimination Act. It was a lengthy training lasting about 8 hours. While it was a difficult topic I really learned a lot in observing the presentation. Prison guards have a very difficult job. My co-workers and I also saw that when doing a training like this people show up with their own personal history or knowledge of sexual assault. Which, automatically gives them an opinion. And, while we as a sexual assault center look at something one way they may come at it from a completely different angle. So, it was nice kind of hearing their thought process and comparing it to my own.

The month of December brings up several projects in the office. December 13, 2008 is our offices annual Cookie Connection. It's one of our big fund raising events. It's being held at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library in downtown Fredericksburg. We sell baked goods to raise money. And, the office gets to hangout together. Which, we are all about. The following week December 18, 2008 is our annual open house. It's a chance for the community to come by our office. See the new space. Find out what we're all about. Well, that's all for now. I'm hoping my other co-workers will get on and post soon.

Non-profit funding

According to Wikipedia, a non-profit is "a legally constituted organization whose objective is to support or engage in activities of public or private interest without any commercial or monetary profit." But, the thing is non-profits need some profit in order to run. There are specific ways that NPO's go about getting money whether it's from private lenders or the government. And, there's only one way for us to prove that we are achieving what we want to achieve. Some of you out there may no what that is and some of you only think you know. But, I can say that I fully appreciate anyone who has to do quarterly reports and budgets and set up grant goals for their employees. This is a recent promotion in my job responsibilities. The last two weeks have been solidly devoted to tracking down our stats and client demographics so we can prove to our board and the community that we are doing something so important. And, that there is a need for our services. People can hear that, "1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men will be a victim of sexual assault in their lifetime," yet it still is not resonating with the world at large that those statistic are on the rise. And, will continue to go up every day with more and more people reporting. Sexual assault is still one of the most under-reported crimes that a person can go through. But, as someone who has been doing nothing but staring at numbers I can tell you in our town of Fredericksburg the numbers have increases significantly just within the last 3 months. This isn't a plea for money only but it's a plea for people to start becoming more aware of what is going on in your own town. Get involved. Volunteer. Find out how to be safe in your town. And, for people who want to see our numbers I am hoping to help generate a percentage report for the year and show what we have been doing with our money and our time in providing this valuable service. I hope to one day not need something entirely devoted to Sexual Assault/Trauma but until that day my office will continue to come in and help provide prevention to the communities and help change the numbers.