Our speakers, Dr. Kristian Jones and Brigitt Dunne from Zacharias Sexual Abuse Center gave us an update on their services and how our donation helps them reach the people who need help. Dr. Jones is the outreach supervisor and Brigitte works with grant applications. She will be attending law school in the fall. Zacharias Sexual Abuse Center (Z Center) first came to our attention from our member Ted Less, who volunteered twice a week at the center. It was originally known as LaCasa - Lake County Council Against Sexual Assault. Their mission is "to provide a place where survivors of sexual assault and abuse can heal and mobilize the community toward action to end sexual violence". They have a 24/7 call center to support survivors which took 4800 calls in 2020. They will also become their advocates from the emergency room to the court room if needed. The education program has reached out to some 7000 students. Their preventative outreach starts with pre-K children where they discuss touching and the feelings, to high school students with more pertinent information at each grade level. They are also presenting information to the local colleges, CLC and Lake Forest College. They have two major locations, one in Gurnee and the other in Skokie. Although primarily serving Lake County residents, they also assist those seeking help in Northern Cook County like Skokie and Evanston. Services are provided in both English and Spanish. They have begun support groups by age or by classification - for example: loved ones of survivors. Another way they have reached out to the community is through social media. They started their own podcast called "73 Seconds" - named because last year when they started this podcast, there was a sexual assault in this country every 73 seconds. Since January it has already gotten worse - now one occurs every 68 seconds. In 2020 Z Center helped 566 survivors of sexual abuse as either an advocate or counselor. The breakdown of that number is: 311 were women, 207 were children, 39 were men, and 9 were binary. Advocates supported 199 victims in the emergency room. In Illinois, with the massive backlog of rape kits waiting for processing reported, there is now a more transparent way for survivors to track their kit's process because the ID number for such kits begin with a K. If there is no movement, an advocate can help to put pressure in the right direction. Both Dr. Jones and Brigitt said the grant Zacharias received from our club helps with the cost of counseling their clients. They do not receive any funds from insurance companies, making donations and government grants their only source of income. For more information, go to https://zcenter.org/. |