Systems and Community Response
An Overview of the CCR and SART Projects
The Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault works to develop a consistent, systemic, and multidisciplinary response to sexual assault statewide through the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) and the Coordinated Community Response Team (CCR) projects. The missions of the CCR and SART Coordinators are to provide support and technical assistance to communities as they develop and implement guidelines, protocols, and awareness/prevention strategies designed to achieve a victim-centered, multidisciplinary response to sexual assault.
This is achieved by:
- Providing trainings to advocates, Criminal Justice Personnel, and other team members on CCRs and SARTs concerning the similarities and differences between the CCR and SART projects and the importance of communities having both types of teams to optimize responses and prevention efforts in their community.
- Providing technical assistance to communities around SART and CCR development, implementation, and evaluation.
- Creating educational resources to guide the team’s systemic response to victims of sexual assault by developing a tool kit for both SARTs and CCR teams (tool kit development in progress).
SART
The primary purpose of a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) is to provide a resource for communities surrounding systemic response to sexual assault. Although similar to a Coordinated Community Response Team (CCR), a SART is smaller in number and made up of members from four disciplines.
Members of a Sexual Assault Response Team:
- Advocates
- Law Enforcement
- SANE nurses/medical personnel
- Prosecution
Goals of a SART:
- Maximize community safety, protection, and response
- Ensure victim-centered response and access to community resources
- Hold sex offenders accountable
For more information, please contact WCASA’s SART Coordinator
You can view or download the SART Protocol here [
]
CCR
The purpose of a Coordinated Community Response Team (CCR) is to provide a multidisciplinary approach and response to issues around sexual assault. The CCR teams can assist service providers and system members in communication, networking, and collaboration, bringing to light gaps in protocols or other services needed to support victims. The team is ALSO a place where members of the community, offender treatment providers, schools, and clergy members work together with system/service providers to discuss sexual assault and its effect on the community, and then equally and collectively participate in developing services, planning events, and creating prevention strategies needed to boost community awareness and decrease sexual violence. While the CCR team has some of the same service/system members as the SART, it is considerably larger and includes other professionals, community members, and stakeholders.
Members of a CCR Team may include:
- DA
- SANE nurses/medical personnel
- Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Advocates
- Law Enforcement
- Clergy
- Business owners
- School staff
- AODA counselors
- Homeless shelter staff
- Ethnic minority advocates
- Immigration/Trafficked advocates
- Representatives from the disabilities and aging network
- Survivors
Goals of a CCR Team:
- Maximize community awareness and safety, protection, and response for victims without the use of case reviews.
- Ensure a victim-centered response to violence and access to community resources
- Hold sex offenders accountable
- Include/represent underserved populations affected by sexual assault (ethnic minorities, LGBTQ, older adults, people with disabilities, male victims) to ensure a voice and access to resources.
Sexual Assault CCR Toolkit
The WCASA CCR Toolkit is a comprehensive resource outlining the creation and maintenance of CCR's within your community. It has been updated for 2009 and will available online here by the end of February, 2010.
The Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault and The Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence:
Within the state of Wisconsin, libraries are available at both the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WCADV) www.wcadv.org or the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault (WCASA), www.wcasa.org . Books and videos may be borrowed or rented from each Coalition. Information is also available on respective coalition websites. Local domestic violence and sexual assault programs often have libraries of tapes and other materials as well. Local programs are an irreplaceable resource for the team.
Each community is unique and CCR teams are encouraged to use these tools according to the needs of their individual team. As with other aspects of coordinated community response efforts, the creativity of team members and community resources will give rise to new ideas and responses to issues. Ideas can be gained from other communities, but the local fingerprint on an idea is unique.
For more information, please contact WCASA’s CCR Specialist
