Salal’s community-based Victim Services Program supports women, trans, nonbinary, Two-Spirit, and gender diverse survivors navigating medical care and understanding systems of accountability after a sexual assault.

Survivors don’t need to navigate post sexual assault healthcare, police, court, tribunals, or other reporting options, alone. Salal’s Victim Services staff are able to accompany and support survivors through sexual assault exams, statements to police, court, and tribunal hearings.

Explore the ways we support survivors through the Victim Services Program

Crisis Support

Salal’s Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) supports survivors wherever they are at in their journey. People do not need to be in immediate crisis or danger in order to access our crisis line or online chat support. Survivors can access support no matter where they are at in their healing journey, whether an assault happened yesterday or 20 years ago.

They provide:

• Immediate crisis support on Salal’s Crisis & Information Line 
• Online chat and text support via Salal Connect
• Suicide risk assessment and safety planning
• Intake and assessment for all of Salal’s services
• Appropriate referrals to community resources

Post Assault Health Care

Salal offers 24-hour support and advocacy for survivors of marginalized genders – women, trans, nonbinary, Two-Spirit, and gender diverse survivors – while accessing medical attention after a sexual assault. We support folks alongside the Sexual Assault Service at Vancouver General Hospital and UBC Hospital. Survivors can also get support to to get forensic evidence collected and stored during their hospital visit. The Sexual Assault Service and Salal have created a specialized programs for survivors to access safe and confidential care up to 7 days after a sexual assault. We can provide emotional support, information about the sexual assault, information around a survivors legal options, and referrals to create continued support for survivors while making important health decisions. 

The 24-hour Sexual Assault Service, as with any Salal accompaniment service, does not require ID or medical insurance. The entire process is survivor centered. The police will not be notified unless a survivor specifically requests to make a report. Requests for reports can be supported by Salal throughout the reporting process to provide emotional support and advocacy. No survivor should ever face systemic barriers after experiencing violence, which is why Salal can source transportation free-of-charge to survivors getting to and from the hospital.

Survivors can also access the Sexual Assault Service and Hospital Accompaniment by going directly to the Emergency Room at Vancouver General Hospital or UBC Hospital. There, survivors will be offered the option to have a Salal support worker present. An accompaniment worker, if requested, will arrive at the hospital within 30 minutes.

Other medical support services we can provide:

• Accompaniments and support for assault related medical procedures such as abortions, emergency IUD insertions, or STI follow up checks
• Accompaniment to the ACCESS team at VGH for mental health assessments 
• Support for HIV case management/accessing PEP

Navigating Systems of Accountability

We support you to understand your rights within systems. We explain, support and advocate. It is our ultimate goal to have survivors have autonomy over their own experiences. We provide information for survivors to understand their role in the system so that they can be the best witnesses they are able to be. 

Some of our systems navigation work includes:

• Support through Criminal Court proceedings. We are able to do a court orientation to prepare you for court. We also attend advanced interviews with Crown Counsel, attend trial with you, and support you with Victim Impact Statements.we provide info for survivors to understand their role in the system so they can be the best witnesses they can be.
• Support with understanding and going through the civil lawsuit process. 
• Assistance with filling out applications for the Crime Victim Assistance Program- a government program that may award survivors benefits such as counselling.
• Assistance in filing out anonymous Third Party Reports. TPRs are able to be filled out with a worker and sent to the police in the jurisdiction where the crime occurred, without attaching your name to the report. This allows you to send police information about what happened, even if you do not want to go through with a full police report. 
• Support with a Human Rights Tribunal Case.
• Support with reporting an offender to a governing body (the College of Surgeons and Physicians, the College of Massage Therapists).