Help us continue vital services

St. Croix Valley Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) is appreciative of the 23 years we have been serving victims of violence in your communities. Our organization is privileged to help people in some of the most desperate times of their lives. But we need your help to continue to these services. Due to federal and state funding, our budget is going through drastic cuts, and we are at risk of losing vital programing, which could happen even this year.

We need to raise $133,000.00 (35% of our operating budget) by June 30, 2024, our fiscal year end to meet our obligations. This amount will ensure we will be able to continue offering our outreach and prevention education program to schools k-12, churches and community organizations. This program provided 89 presentations, educating 3,397 middle and high school students and community members. There are currently no other organizations that offer this in-depth, age-appropriate violence prevention content that our youth so desperately need.

Our advocacy services have demonstrated Olympic stealth in pursuing educational outreach goals that would eventually take them into every middle and high school in our service area. With a strategic commitment to intervention upstream from actual violence, their curriculum focuses on healthy relationships, boundaries, red flags, technology safety, how to support a friend experiencing abuse, and community support and resources available for those experiencing violence. They also discuss consent and the laws around consent/sex in Wisconsin. This focus is based on the reality that 1 in 12 youth experience teen dating violence including physical and sexual violence, that students who experience dating violence through technology abuse are also at a higher risk of being physically abused by that dating partner, and that dating, and relationship abuse starts young. Their presentations create a safe environment for student to explore, ask questions and learn about techniques abusers use to manipulate others. These presentations are intended for middle and high school aged students and offer best practice materials encouraging students to critically think about healthy behavior practices. Given that schools are now mandated to offer education on abuse and sexual violence, we have a paved path to meeting our goals. As this is being written, 46 presentations are already booked in schools within our service area.

St. Croix Valley SART is a 501(c)3 non-profit, based in Hudson, WI. SART currently provides forensic exams and advocacy services to pediatric, adolescent, and adult victims of sexual assault in Barron, Pierce, Polk, Rusk, and St. Croix counties in Wisconsin, at either of its community-based exam sites in Hudson or Rice Lake, Wisconsin, or at the eleven partnering Emergency Departments in Western Wisconsin, as well as at Hope Coalition’s Outreach offices in Red Wing, Minnesota. Community outreach and education is offered to all middle, high school, and secondary educational institutions within our service areas as well as churches and community-based organizations.

All SART services are provided free of charge, in line with state statute 949.26(2)(a), and we rely on fundraising, grants and private donations to help defray the costs of these services. On average, the cost of one forensic exam is $5,400.00. In the 2022- 2023 fiscal year, St Croix Valley SART served 103 victim-survivors. Of those, SART provided advocacy, information, and referrals through 1,130 interactions. In addition, SART staff was invited SART also provided five forensic exams of violent crime suspects for law enforcement.

Questions? Contact us at [email redacted]

Sincerely,

St Croix Valley SART Board of Directors