The Sexual Assault Forensic Evaluation and Treatment (SAFE-T) Program: A Campus, Community, and Hospital Collaboration

The purpose of this award is to establish or expand Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) programs that will offer medical forensic care, advocacy, and other victim services to sexual assault survivors on college campuses. The primary goals of this program are to: 1) establish or expand SANE programs that will improve the delivery of sexual assault medical forensic care, advocacy, and other victim services to sexual assault survivors on campuses using coordinated community response strategies and 2) build the campuses' capacity to train and retain SANEs.

This application proposes a campus-based, dual SANE-SART to meet the needs of University of Arizona survivors. Central to the project is the Sexual Assault Forensic Evaluation and Treatment (SAFE-T) program. SAFE-T will be a collaboration between the University of Arizona Consortium on Gender-Based Violence (CGBV), Banner University Medical Center Tucson (BUMCT), and the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault (SACASA). Forensic exams will be conducted at BUMCT, the on-campus academic hospital. SACASA will provide advocates and SANEs. The CGBV will coordinate with a campus-based SART and work with campus stakeholders to refer students to SAFE-T. This project will dramatically increase access to forensic exams, particularly for the students at highest risk of victimization; which at the University of Arizona is freshman women. Many of these assaults take place in a campus residence hall, chapter house, or residence near campus. Most freshman do not have transportation to an off-campus hospital for medical forensic care. CA/NCF