Street Level

Eighty-nine people picked up the phone and called the Kamloops Sexual Assault Centre (KSACC) during its last fiscal year.

Can you imagine the courage it took for them to do this?

They weren’t calling for a friend or family member — they were referring themselves to the agency.

They had reached the point where they knew they needed to get help.

And that’s just one statistic.

Another 25 people were referred by family or friends. Royal Inland Hospital sent 21.

By the time all the agencies and government ministries and concerned people were finished, the agency that has just celebrated its 25th year of existence had added 354 new clients.

That’s almost one a day because even the incredible, dedicate staff who keep KSACC alive have to have time to live their own lives.

Although the statistics from the agency’s first 20 months of operation aren’t as detailed as they are now, it’s obvious the staff was busy from the moment the office opened on Fourth Avenue.

During those months, the staff dealt with 1,112 instances of sexual assault on adults, 147 on children and another 44 from battering and harassment.

It was tough work then.

There were only six such centres in the province and Kamloops was described as having one of the highest incidences of rape in B.C.

Public awareness was targeted as essential to reducing child abuse.

As the agency grew, its services expanded to include a 24-hour crisis line (oops, it’s gone now, thanks to government cutbacks), a sexual assault response team program (also gone, thanks to cutbacks), counselling services for males over the age of 19 (also gone, thank you, Gordon Campbell), and victim services (not gone, just hit with a 25 per cent cut in financing.)

Through it all, a core group of women, surrounded by many volunteers, kept KSACC going, confronting the reality that sexual abuse continues to exist in the 21st century.

And it hasn’t been easy.

Consider these anecdotes, two of thousands the staff have experienced:

• A young mother finally managed to sneak away from her abusive husband to call the provincial 1-800 call-centre line instituted when rape crisis lines were shut down by the Liberal government.

Those lines aren’t staffed by counsellors, but by people with lists of places to make referrals. The woman, who suspected her children were being sexually abused, was required to remain anonymous and told to call KSACC the next morning — and it was two more months of abuse before she could sneak away to make that phone call.

• A 23-year-old man, about to become a father, had never received counselling for abuse he experienced from ages five to nine by an older male.

With the impending birth, his experiences were causing him emotional turmoil. He sought out counselling but, other than to pay for it and go on a waitlist, there was none available once KSACC had to shut down its adult male-counselling services.

A few years ago, KSACC’s agency co-ordinator Cynthia Davis, announced there would be no Take Back the Night event because her agency staff didn’t consider Kamloops safe enough for women to walk alone at night.

That caused quite the furor, with the right-wing side of local media condemning her for saying what many people today believe to be true. Even our transit exchange isn’t considered safe these days by many people.

In some ways, it’s unfortunate KSACC is marking a quarter-century. It would be so good if our society didn’t need agencies like it to exist.

But we do and, because of this, we owe a debt of gratitude to a lot of women — Connie Scanks, Grace Chronister, Ronolee Stevens, Linda Halliday, Gwen Gosgnach, Carol Reiter, Bev Munro . . . this list goes on.

Each of them has fought a fight most of us wouldn’t be able to address dispassionately.

For 25 years, they’ve been there to pick up the pieces when society’s ills shatter a soul.

Wouldn’t it be great if we don’t have to celebrate their 50th anniversary?

dale@kamloopsthisweek.com

Posted by Dale at 12:16 p.m. Comments