After a fire burned them out, Sexual Assault Support Center staffers celebrate new office
Eleven months after a fire burned them out of their office, the staff members at the Sexual Assault Support Center, who made 1,500 points of contact with clients last year, including 230 new clients, celebrated the opening of their new location.
Dozens of supporters gathered Wednesday at the support center’s new office, 909 Talbotton Road, for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“This is so exciting,” Kyle Bair, the center’s executive director for the past 20 years, told the Ledger-Enquirer. “Today, it kind of feels like almost the first time the community is aware that the center is here, and to have this support is huge.”
The support center began operation in 1981 as the Columbus Rape Crisis Center. The previous office was in a historic house at 2027 Sixth Ave. The new location used to be a home health care business.
“A lot of individuals were here, nights and weekends, stripping wallpaper and painting walls and patching walls,” Bair said. “We couldn’t have done it without them.”
The center’s interim location since the fire was in an office at Piedmont Columbus Regional’s midtown medical center. The new office is within walking distance of the hospital.
“The location is perfect,” Bair said. “The majority of my clients do go to Piedmont. ... I think it’s really in the middle of the community as well. It’s close enough to law enforcement, close enough to other agencies that we work very closely with, like the shelter and all of that. So I just don’t think I could ask for better.”
The support center also will be called the Center at 909, especially on the signage in front of the office, to help clients not feel the stigma associated with reporting a sexual assault, Bair said.
“Just to make it a little more friendly,” she said.
Supported by grants and donations, all the services the support center provides are free of charge. Its budget this fiscal year is $250,000. The center’s mission is “to provide free and confidential counseling, advocacy, support and referral service to past and present survivors of sexual violence, dating violence and stalking.”
The support center also provides crisis intervention and support to victims of human trafficking, Bair noted.
“If the victim chooses not to receive help, someone that is close to them may choose support from the center,” she said. “We provide emergency medical and legal advocacy, 24-hour hotline, transportation, emergency client assistance — (people) may need meds, help with things affected by the crime, like job loss, housing, etc. — and counseling and support groups.”
The new location’s 2,500 square feet is more than double the space the center had at its previous office for its staff (three full-time and one-part-time), plus 39 volunteer advocates on the call roster, Bair said.
“We are able to better serve clients in the new space,” she said, “with each (full-time) advocate having their own office, a separate law enforcement interview space, support group space, training space and all disability friendly — unlike the former space with stairs.”
The support center is renting the office suite through Trey Carmack, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker/Kennon, Parker, Duncan & Davis, Bair said.
“I am hoping that we can secure the suite next door though a matching grant,” she said, “and the lease would then be amended for both units.”
The March 23, 2018, fire was caused by an electrical problem, Bair said, and happened in the wee hours of the morning, so nobody was in the office then.
“My former landlord, Terry Wilson, called me at 1:30 (a.m.) to tell me the fire department was there,” she said. “So I went to the office and watched those amazing firemen save the house. Terry owns several properties in the area. He likes to renovate and restore historic homes. He has restored the space, but I could not go back due to the inability to serve clients with disabilities.”
The fire didn’t destroy any records, Bair said, but supplies and furniture were lost or damaged.
CONTACT INFO
Sexual Assault Support Center mailing address: 909 Talbotton Road, Suite A, Columbus, GA, 31904.
Email address: TheCenterAt909@gmail.com.
Office phone: 706-221-1033.
Crisis hotline: 706-571-6010
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network): 800-656-4673. Although sexual violence incidents decreased by more than half from 1993 to 2016, according to RAINN, 321,500 Americans age 12 or older were sexually assaulted or raped and 60,000 children were victims of substantiated or indicated sexual abuse in 2016, meaning every 98 seconds another American is sexually assaulted.
HOW TO DONATE
An anonymous donor has offered to give the Sexual Assault Center $20,000 if it can raise another $20,000 to match it, according to the SASC fundraiser page at GoFundMe.com.
IMPACT BY THE NUMBERS
According to its 2018 annual report, the Sexual Assault Support Center in Columbus made the following impact last year:
1,500 points of contact with clients (hotline, hospital response, office calls, in-person disclosures, office visits, emails, social media messages or text messages).
1,400 units of services (transportation, hospital accompaniment, or criminal justice support).
950 returning client units of service.
710 hotline hours.
510 crisis and client calls.
380 client text messages.
330 Family Center counseling sessions.
230 new clients.
210 hospital hours.
100 client emails.
70 office appointments.
35 client social media contacts.
Mark Rice, 706-576-6272, @MarkRice.
This story was originally published February 13, 2019 at 7:16 PM.
