The AMS has announced that it will be working with the university to create a Sexual Assault Response Team, which will respond to and support victims of sexual assault.
Sexual Assault Response Teams (SARTs) are becoming a common presence in universities across the country. Schools such as the University of Alberta, Queens University, and the University of Victoria have all formed SARTs for their campuses.
The upcoming development of UBC’s SART was only recently announced at an AMS committee, so details are limited. Though, ultimately, SART’s aim is to ensure a proper organized response to instances of sexual violence on campus.
“SARTs ensure that survivors of sexualized violence are supported to make the right decisions for them and to respond in the way that they see fit,” said AMS VP Academic Jenna Omassi. “As well, [SARTs] can point survivors towards proper resources and be knowledgable about the resources that exist.”
However, Omassi also stresses that the way SARTs are run can vary between campuses.
To give an example of one, UVic’s SART team promises “immediate emotional support and information to people of all genders who have been sexually assaulted within the past week and [are] age 13 plus.” Additionally, they offer “accompaniment to hospital and medical and police involvement as requested by survivor.”
According to the Sexual Assault Support Manager Ashley Bentley, the AMS is currently organizing what the processes of the SART team will look like as well as who will be on the team.
“It’s definitely something that’s been in discussion for quite some time,” said Bentley. “It’s something that the SASC has been advocating for for the past while, and the hope is that we’ll move forward with this response protocol soon to ... ensure a safer campus community.”
Right now, UBC is developing a committee to look at how best to create a SART for campus. According to Bentley, the VP students office has suggested that the team not be developed for at least 12 months. The development of a SART coincides with the a now-established Sexual Assault Prevention Team.
Formed in March, the UBC SAPT team works towards preventing sexual assault on campus by developing an educational framework that continues the conversation of sexualized violence and consent. For instance, the SAPT team will be launching their “Consent Campaign” in their second week of campus in order to make the message of consent clear to all those on campus.
Additionally, the SAPT will be doing training with residence advisors on the topics of consent, healthy relationships, and responding to disclosures.
By organizing these two teams together to create responsible prevention and response strategies, the university can have a more coordinated approach to the issue of sexual violence on campus.
“It’s also just to get a lot of the resources that work together on campus to work in a coordinated approach, which is obviously beneficial to client work,” said Bentley.
Of the two initiatives, however, Omassi said that UBC’s current focus is on prevention, with response as the second step which will be further developed in the future.
“The focus of the institution right now and the university is to really create that dialogue piece right now to start the conversation and to push forward education – and then step two is response,” she said.
“In terms of the [Sexual Assault Response] team itself, it’s really in the beginning of it’s development, so I think we’re going to see a lot coming up in the future, but for right now there are just preliminary conversations happening."