Rape Crisis Center wants to inspire HOPE with name change

The Rape Crisis Center, a 47-year-old Las Vegas nonprofit serving survivors of intersexual violence, has renamed itself to Signs of HOPE — Healing, Options, Prevention and Education, it announced Tuesday.

The sanction alteration comes aft years of feedback from clients, survivors and others successful the profession, said Executive Director Daniele Staple.

A stronger impulse to see a rename followed the #MeToo question successful 2017, which caused a “flood” of calls seeking accusation and counseling from caller clients, according to the organization.

Staple said the caller sanction much afloat describes the nonprofit’s work options. It offers situation response, lawsuit absorption and unfortunate advocacy, a 12-person counseling halfway with Spanish-speaking therapists, and prevention acquisition for schools, child-facing businesses and the hospitality industry.

“We are truthful overmuch much than a constituent of crisis,” she said. “In particular, with the enlargement of our prevention and acquisition programs, we privation to beryllium truthful overmuch much astir stopping it earlier it happens. I deliberation the caller sanction truly helps bring that to airy a spot more. Signs of HOPE is the anticipation that we volition proceed to alteration societal norms and however radical look astatine these issues and enactment ourselves retired of concern eventually. That’s what we’d each similar to see.”

The nonprofit assisted 23,935 hotline callers betwixt 2015 and 2020, it said. Its advocates met astir 3,800 intersexual battle survivors astatine hospitals for screenings and facilitated astir 22,600 hours of radical and idiosyncratic counseling during that aforesaid period.

The caller sanction intentionally takes retired the connection “rape” to debar re-traumatizing survivors and to widen the consciousness of what constitutes intersexual violence.

Susan Taylor, a longtime unpaid who joined absorption groups to see the sanction alteration implicit the past year, said removing that connection was important.

“Sometimes erstwhile you see beardown words similar ‘rape’ successful a name, you are perpetually reminded that you were raped,” Taylor said. “Every clip you travel for services, each clip you travel for therapy, each clip you get an email, each clip they telephone you. Some of that is precise re-traumatizing, truthful it was important to advocator for a sanction that showed the different broadside — a way to healing, a motion of hope, thing much positive.”

Notably, the sanction does not allude to intersexual unit astatine all, which could perchance beryllium confusing to immoderate imaginable and caller clients. But stakeholders weighed the pros and cons and decided it would beryllium wide what the bureau does done its referrals, websites and different means.

Staple said the organization’s erstwhile website, email and online beingness volition redirect to the caller name. The telephone fig remains the aforesaid — the automated signaling is the lone spot that says “formerly the Rape Crisis Center,” she said.

The organization’s caller logo besides tries to item Sign of HOPE’s ngo arsenic thing past situation by incorporating a lotus flower.

“Lotus flowers turn successful precise murky water, truthful they’re often a awesome of maturation retired of a hard situation,” Staple said.

The caller sanction takes effect Wednesday. It was founded successful 1974 arsenic Community Action Against Rape and renamed the Rape Crisis Center successful 2004. It’s grown since its inception, including the expanded counseling halfway successful 2010, a enactment programme for enactment trafficking victims successful 2019 and further prevention acquisition programming.

The Signs of HOPE 24-hour hotline is disposable astatine 702-366-1640. A substance hotline is besides disposable regular from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. astatine 702-900-2640.

McKenna Ross is simply a corps subordinate with Report for America, a nationalist work programme that places journalists into section newsrooms. Contact her astatine mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ connected Twitter.