Grant Application Form - Victoria Sexual Assault Centre

Basic Information

For what type of grant are you applying?

Category: [X] Program (annual operations)

Project / Event / Program Name & Description: Service Access Line This program is intended to provide survivors with emotional support and info. about VSAC’s services for survivors needing access to healing care including suicide assessments, safety planning; triaging; and referrals to other agencies as needed.

Grant amount applied for? $5000 % of project/event/program budget 8.3 % Date the project, activity, event or program will occur: April 2021 - May 2022

Has your organization ever received grant funding from the Town? [X] Yes [ ] No

• If yes, attach copies of printed material which acknowledged the financial support of the Town.

Has your organization received a permissive tax exemption from the Town? [ ] Yes [X] No

• If yes, in what year(s)? _______________________________________________

Does your organization issue grants to other organizations? [ ] Yes [X] No

• If yes, you must demonstrate that any funding provided by the Town will not be used to fund grants to other organizations and attach it to this grant application form.

Attachments Required

• Resolution of Board of Directors to request a Grant in Aid from the Town of View Royal. ** If there is no Board of Directors, a statement of request must be signed by the majority of the members of the non-profit or community organization.
• Prior years financial statements of the organization.
• Documentation Town funding will not be used to fund grants to other organizations (if applicable)

About Your Organization

Legal Name of Organization: Victoria Sexual Assault Centre Mailing Address: 201-3060 Cedar Hill Road, Victoria BC, V8T 3J5 Operating at: 300B-3060 Cedar Hill Road, Victoria BC, V8T 3J5 Email: info@vsac.ca Contact: Carissa Ropponen Title: Manager of Resource Development Society Registration Number: S-18942 Year Registered: 1983 Charity Registration Number: 10822 0054 RR0001 Year Registered: 1983 Year Founded: 1982 Fiscal year end: 31 / March

List any other geographic areas in which your organization operates: Central Saanich, Colwood, Esquimalt, Langford, Metchosin, North Saanich, Oak Bay, Saanich, Sidney, Sooke, Victoria, View Royal, Tsartlip First Nation

Your Organization’s Personnel

1) Organization Executive and Staff:

President: Melanie Wilson and Christoph Peck (Co-Chairs) Secretary/Treasurer: Kelsey Topola

Board Members: Amy Raymond, Nancy Carleton, Alexandra da Silva, Ram Aheer, Laura Benoit, Samuel Geisterfer, Maddie Lusk, Susan Ross, Mariel Wendowsky, Tina Lowery

2) List the staff or volunteer positions involved in carrying out the project:

Your Organization’s Objectives and Services

1) Describe your organization’s mission statement and how your services meet them:

The Victoria Sexual Assault Centre is a feminist organization committed to ending sexualized violence through healing, education, and prevention.

We are dedicated to supporting women and all Trans survivors of sexual assault and childhood sexual abuse, through advocacy, counselling, and empowerment.

Our primary work is to provide direct services to survivors, aged 13 and older, who have been sexually assaulted and their supporters, and to work with community members to end violence.

Our services: Sexual Assault Response Team, Sexual Assault Clinic, Access Line, Victim Service, Crisis & Long-term Counseling, Community Outreach & Youth Prevention Education.

Your Proposed Program Budget

1) Please list all expenses and sources of project revenue, including “in-kind” contributions from your (or any other) organization.

A. Income

B. Expenses

Details of Your Organization’s Grant Request

1) Nature and goals of the project, program or event:

VSAC’s Access Line is a response service available by phone for people in our community who have been impacted by sexualized violence.

Unique to each survivor’s needs, support is tailored to provide emotional support, information about our services, suicide assessments, safety planning, triaging, and referrals to other agencies as needed. During business hours, a highly experienced crisis support worker responds to phone calls, voicemails, and people who walk-in to VSAC for crisis support. After hours, phone support is provided in partnership with the Vancouver Island Crisis Line, with access to mobilize VSAC’s collaborative Sexual Assault Response Team to the Victoria Sexual Assault Clinic, or to provide accompaniment for recent survivors to the hospital in the case of injuries requiring emergency care, or the police station if required. The goal of the program is to provide survivors with inclusive and response care, as well as to connect them with other VSAC services.

The Access Line is currently the main portal of access to services at the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre’s Clinic Program. First of its kind in B.C., this innovative clinic has shifted key services and supports for recent survivors of sexual assault. In addition, the Access Line is the first point of contact for survivors of sexualized violence to access the full range of services at VSAC, including virtual and phone one-to-one counselling, victim services support group and informational meetings that provide more in-depth information about the effects of sexualized violence; basic coping skills; programs available at VSAC; and supporting people to access other community services to assist with their healing.

2) Summary of direct and indirect benefits to the Town of View Royal:

The benefits of this Access Line to the community would be holistic and effective COVID-19 safe support and intake into the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre’s services for View Royal residents who are survivors of sexualized violence.

The Access Line will increase the wellbeing of View Royal residents in a variety of ways, both by allowing direct response to harm that this community experiences, as well as by supporting the myriad of challenging health outcomes that are a result of experiencing violence in an inclusive fashion. This will create a stronger, healthier community that has its needs met in a timely and multi-faceted way.

In addition, the community benefit also involves referrals to other agencies and supports that are inclusive and able to meet survivor needs and their various identities and experiences and that are gender and orientation inclusive; free or low cost; and focus on survivor supports while gathering supports for mental health, housing, domestic violence, suicide support, and group/peer support. These resources are available through our Access Line to clients, non-clients of VSAC and representatives from community organizations. These resources would be helpful to people as they transition out of our services, supplemental to our services or alternatives to our services.

In 2019-2020 fiscal year, the Service Access Line had a total of 848 contacts from View Royal needing support and/or access to VSAC's services.

In the 2019-2020 fiscal year approximately 13 survivors from View Royal accessed our Clinic services either through our Service Access Line or through our SART service (approx. 12% of total survivors using Clinic services).

Conditions of Funding

1. The applicant must acknowledge the support of the Town in all printed and publicity material related to the project, event, or program;
2. Funds must be used for the purpose for which they were requested. Any funds not used for the requested purpose must be returned to the Town.
3. Funds will be released as follows: a. Grants in aid provided for annual programs will be released at 100% at time of approval by Council; b. Grants in aid provided for special projects or events will be released at 50% at time of approval by Council and 50% after receipt of the final report; c. Conditional grants in aid will be paid 100% upon satisfactory proof that the conditions, as set by Council, have been met.
4. Organizations receiving grants from the Town shall provide an accounting of the project or program for which the grant was approved as follows: a. Where the grant in aid was for a specific project or event the applicant must submit a final report within 45 days after the project or event is complete. b. Where the grant in aid was in support of an annual program, the applicant must submit a final report within 60 days of the end of the organization’s fiscal year.
5. An final report must include the following information: i. Evaluation of the project, event, or program; ii. Financial statement of actual revenue and expenses for the project, event or program; iii. Attendance figures, if applicable; iv. Number of participants in the project, event, or program; and v. Evaluation of the direct and indirect benefits to the Town.
6. In the event that the project or program is not completed, the grant recipient organization must notify the Town as soon as practical and refund any grant funds that have been provided for that project.

Your Directors’ Declaration

We, the undersigned, do hereby certify that this application and all appended forms and/or documents contain a full and accurate account of all matters stated:

Name: Christoph Peck Title: Board Co-Chair Date: February 25 2021

Name: Melanie Wilson Title: Board Co-Chair Date: February 25 2021