Galil Golan Rape Crisis Center
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Mission Statement
The GGRCC has been operating for over 20 years and has developed its services since its establishment. Our work is based on a cadre of 100 trained and dedicated volunteers and a handful of employees. The GGRCC and its staff and volunteers work to provide assistance to the survivors of sexual violence, and to fight the phenomenon of sexual violence, by raising public awareness and changing attitudes. 1 of 3 women and 1 of 6 men suffer sexual assault during their lifetime and 1 of 6 children suffer incest. We want every survivor to feel she has someone who believes in her and never questions her experience and feelings. SV survivors suffer from trauma, self-hate, self-guilt, they feel alone and do not talk about the abuse. Moreover, our area is characterized by a high number of PTSD patients due to over 20 years of war and terrorism from Hezbollah. Adding to this trauma also a sexual violence trauma intensifies that difficulties and manifestations of the survivors' condition, including panic attacks, dissociation, etc. we provide heartfelt, non-judgmental and anonymous support needed – our simple hotline is sometimes a godsend. It is also important to mention that the population in our area is of low socio-economic class and survivors seek free and/or governmental services to deal with their traumas – we work with the local governments to create a more comforting, just and supporting society.
About This Cause
The Galil Golan Rape Crisis Center (GGRCC) was founded in 1994 by the Women's Forum of Kiryat Shemona. In 1999, the Rape Crisis Center separated from the Women's Forum, and became an independent non-profit organization. In the first years the GGRCC operated only part-time, a few days a week. Today we offer full time service and we have expanded: the hotline is available 24/7; we offer written support via Whatsapp; personal support for survivors, accompaniment in legal procedures; Educational programs for children and teenagers as well as workshops and lectures for education professionals and parents. We provide services for the entire region from Metula to Tiberias, including the Golan Heights and Merom Hagalil. Hotline support for survivors of sexual abuse - $95,000.00 Donation Goal SV survivors suffer from trauma, self-hate, self-guilt, they feel alone and do not talk about the abuse. The Upper Galilee and Golan heights are characterized by a high number of PTSD patients due to over 20 years of war and terrorism. Adding also a sexual violence trauma intensifies the daily life with panic attacks, dissociation, etc. we provide heartfelt, non-judgmental and anonymous support needed. Our program aims to provide survivors with emotional support via crisis line, personal meetings, accompaniment through medical and legal procedures and more. This program is dependent on our volunteers. This project is the heart of the Center's operations. The hotline operates 24/7, including holidays, and provides free service according to the caller's needs, with no pre-conditions. Such services can include telephone conversations, meetings, accompanying the victim to a medical examination or the hospital, referrals for treatment, and more. On a yearly basis we receive over 3,000 calls to the hotline from survivors seeking our support. 60% of sexual violence cases took place when the survivors where under the age of 18, over 85% of attackers are family members or friends of the survivors. This data only intensifies the difficulty of the situation and the ability of each survivor to carry on with this secret and it's ramifications throughout their lives. In order to provide this support, we train a new cadre of volunteers every year. On a yearly basis we conduct 2 new hotline volunteers courses consisting of 72 academic hours each. During the course we familiarize participants with different types of sexual violence, we teach them about the center's approach and the participants act out simulations of hotline calls and get feedback on how best to proceed with the call. Some sessions are carried out by professionals from the therapy fields in order to learn aid tools from the best. Moreover, we understand that our volunteers suffer from secondary trauma due to the high number of sexual violence cases they listen to. Therefore, we have a monthly supplementary training session. Various approaches are presented and explored, e.g. alternative therapies; calls to the hotline are analyzed and methods of dealing with them are discussed; various lectures are given by experts, to enrich the volunteers, maintain their high level of professionalism, and expand their knowledge concerning sexual victimization and its ramifications. Support via WhatsApp - $30,000.00 Donation Goal This program aims to reach out to survivors in general and specifically young survivors of sexual abuse that are less inclined to call the hotline. Among this group are hard of hearing survivors and younger survivors due to the convenience of the platform for them, as well as reach more people in need that had some difficulties reaching out to us while calling the hotline. A 2019 study by Dr. Linda Kaye from Edge Hill University found that text-based messaging apps that offer group chat, such as WhatsApp, have a positive impact on the psychological health of an individual. According to the study people felt less lonely using messaging apps and therefore we broadened our support services to use a messaging platform. Moreover, the Covid-19 lockdown in Israel had a significant impact on survivors' wellbeing and security. Many were locked in their homes, sometimes with their abusers, with no possible support system – written support via their smartphones is a much more possible than calling the hotline. The program aims to provide Support via WhatsApp by trained and professional volunteers using the LivePerson Platform. Accompaniment in legal procedures - $40,000.00 Donation Goal Accompaniment in legal and medical procedures for sexual violence survivors targets the root issues underling the difficulties women and girls face when dealing with the painful experience of coming forward with their stories. The program aims to empower many women to take an active, meaningful role in the criminal legal system and in the process of carrying out justice for themselves. The program aims to create a bridge between the survivors and the legal system that does not understand and bureaucratically cannot acknowledge the special circumstances of the survivors. We accompany survivors from the stage of exploring the possibility of filing a complaint with the police, through giving testimony, through court sessions, appeals and more. The legal system is not capable of dealing with the trauma and its ramifications during testimonies or court sessions – sometimes the survivor "disconnects" during her testimony because her traumatic experience is too much for her mind to handle, sometimes she/he are incoherent due to psychological methods that their mind takes to keep them safe. Our presence helps the survivor feel that she is not alone in the battle, we are a professional presence able to talk with the cop, attorney or judge if needed. For many survivors just us being with her is enough to go through the process and feel empowered. Subsidizing therapy for survivors - $128,000.00 Donation Goal Many survivors in our region are in desperate need for therapy to deal with their trauma – yet due to financial difficulties they are unable to pursue their need. We provide survivors with subsidized therapy with professional who have been trained by us on the specifications of sexual trauma survivors. Moreover, we have a special program providing art-therapy to 2 survivors a year – free of charge. In addition, we maintain working relations with many companies that provide gift certificates for survivors in need for groceries and basic life needs. Our work is not confined only to financial help as described – we also work closely with survivors to seek medical, therapeutic and financial aid for them from different government entities. Many survivors suffer from comorbidity – i.e. they might suffer from psychological problems or eating disorders etc. in addition to the trauma and PTSD. These situations need an ever more detailed and specific type of help and we work with centers all around Israel to provide survivors with the best help and couple them with the right institutions for such help. Education for prevention of sexual violence - $53,000.00 Donation Goal Sexual violence is widespread within Israeli society regardless cultures, religions and genders. The subject is still taboo in society especially in our region, the periphery of Israel that is characterized with conservatism. Survivors of sexual abuse from all groups are often silenced and offenders are not prosecuted. Through our education programs with try to promote social change and a change in the discourse about sexual violence and healthy sexuality. We conduct approximately 1,000 workshops annually in schools, youth groups, community centers, non-formal education frameworks such as Kibbutzim and more – we work with ages 6-18 within the education frameworks. We also work with parents and teachers in order to create a holistic discourse on all fronts. Our workshops target children and teenagers that are impressionable aiming to promote a discourse of equality, personal space, healthy communication and breaking the conspiracy of silence while they are still young. We also work with staff and parents to raise awareness to normal sexual behavior and signs of abnormal behavior. We also aim to provide parents and staff with tools to talk with their children and help them deal with their abuse. Young Ambassadors for preventing sexual violence - $51,000.00 Donation Goal The program is designed for girls in 10th grades in high schools and community centers. In our program "Young Ambassadors" we want the girls to be able to promote a respectful, egalitarian discourse and raise awareness to gender equality and the prevention of sexual violence based on a background of domination and gender. Each group includes 20 girls who choose every week, throughout the school year, to attend learning sessions and to build and implement a project together. The workshops deal with the influence of advertisements and media on the gender structure of boys and girls, the beauty myth (Naomi Wolf), myths about sexual violence, red lights in courtship and relationships, date rape, secrecy surrounding sexual violence, social pressure and the dangers of social media, body language and boundaries and more. The program offers empowerment to young girls as well as assistance and support throughout their adolescence dealing with body issues as well as ramifications of sexual abuse that some of them suffered from as children. Our program has significant Tikkun Olam values targeting a population and an issue that are taboo and somewhat neglected on a social scale, especially in the periphery characterized with conservatism, a traditional and somewhat religious population. We offer the girls a non-judgmental group of their peers with the guidance of a skilled and trained facilitator form the GGRCC that is trained to provide emotional and heartfelt support and empowerment for the girls. The program not only aims to teach and raise awareness but also to create a sense of leadership and social change for the girls and guide them in building their own project at school aiming to discuss these taboo issues with their peers.