Sexual assault victims will soon see more support in Lethbridge with new centre

Sexual assault victims will have more support services in place in Lethbridge, as the province is in the process of funding a new sexual assault centre.

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It’s a shocking number: Statistics Canada says 22 in every 1,000 Canadians experience sexual assault.

“Lethbridge is not isolated from it.

“We’ll be the same as any other centre in the country. The statistics will be the same,” said Bill Kaye, project coordinator with the Domestic Violence Action Team.

Since these numbers are so high, and the latest report from Statistics Canada says they aren’t decreasing, Lethbridge is receiving a provincially funded sexual assault centre to offer stronger support for victims.

“It’s a service that the community really needs,” Kaye said. “It’s going to provide system navigation, it will provide education and support and provide counselling and all of those services in one place that someone could actually point to and say… ‘Go there.’”

The price tag for this new centre is not yet known, however it will operate like many others across the province such as CCASA (Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse) and SACE (Sexual Assault Centre Edmonton). They help by providing a place of contact for victims and encouraging more to stop suffering in silence.

“There’s a large number of offences that aren’t reported,” Lethbridge police Insp. Tom Ascroft said.

“It can difficult for a victim. There’s embarrassment, there’s shame, there’s some fear of the system.”

READ MORE: Even in a #MeToo climate, only 28% of Canadians understand consent

With this in mind, Kaye has been working for years to make the centre a reality and he says that recent international movements may have sparked the local conversation on just how necessary this facility really is.

“In society today with the sexual violence, the ‘I Believe You’ and the ‘Me Too’ campaigns … the speaking out campaigns, the desire to have these certain services available to everyone in the province is on everyone’s minds.”

Now in the process of finding staff and a location for the centre, Kaye hopes the facility will be up and running in the fall.