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Central Alberta Sexual Assault Support Centre responds to rising demand with frozen funding

Corporate fundraising has not been successful: director
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Patricia Arango, executive-director of the Central Alberta Sexual Assault Support Centre. (Contributed photo)

More sex assault victims are coming through the doors of the Central Alberta Sexual Support Centre — just as more staff are leaving due to a wage freeze.

Patricia Arango the centre’s executive director, said therapists and other agency staff were not included in the cost-of-living raise given to government employees.

As a result, six of her staffers have left since January. And Arango is now in the process of hiring to try to fill these positions.

The Central Alberta Sexual Support Centre operates with 15 full-time and 13 part-time employees including therapists, educators, administrative and support workers, as well as volunteers.

Arango said most of the non-profit’s revenues come from a $1.08 million grant from Community and Social Services, which has stayed the same for the past three years. Smaller amounts are received from a victim services fund and Alberta Health. Arango said these have also been frozen during a time when inflation was hitting six per cent.

At the same time, about 200 victims of sexual assault are walking through the centre’s doors for therapy each month. As well the crisis line receives an average of 250 calls per month. Arango said this is a huge increase from 2014 when crisis calls averaged 67 a month.

As well, more victims of sexual assault have mental health or addictions problems these days, so the complexity around their cases is increasing, she added.

The centre has tried to raise private donations from sponsorships to boost revenues, but Arango said this has proven very difficult in recent years. Since most corporations say they have earmarked their charitable donations for other causes, Arango concluded helping adult victims of sex assault is not the highest priority in the Red Deer area.

This fall, the Central Alberta Sexual Support Centre plans to move into the new Child Advocacy Centre building to consolidate some services since some of Arango’s clients are children.

This will make it easier to help these young victims of sex assault, she said. However, the centre will be paying a higher rent after it moves into the new building. Arango, therefore, hopes to raise a lot of money from the next fundraising Ride With Respect, which is planned for July 29.

Last year’s event ended up being a wash-out from rain, she added, “so I hope the weather co-operates.”