Tel Aviv Sexual Assault Crisis Center Activities & Services
Hotlines
The Crisis Center’s main service is its 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Hotline for Women. The Hotline for Men, which is the only such line for men in Israel, is also staffed 7 days a week. In 2003, the Center opened a designated Hotline for Religious Men and Youth operating 5 days a week from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM.
All three hotlines provide immediate emotional, “lending an ear” assistance, tailored to the caller’s specific needs. We provide basic information and assistance to survivors of sexual assault as well as to their families or significant others, which can be of any type and of any degree of severity.
Survivor Services
The Tel Aviv Sexual Assault Crisis Center provides a number of additional services to those who seek assistance:
Support groups for rape and incest survivors Accompanying to hospital, police station and through the judicial process Operation of the Victim Witness Assistance Program Referral to a psychologist, social worker, health professional upon request
Education and Prevention Initiatives
Education is crucial in changing Israeli society’s approach toward sexual assault as public knowledge of this issue is often skewed, vague or damaging. Therefore, the Center’s Education Department reaches out to a vast array of schools, educators, at-risk populations, professionals, organizations, governmental agencies, corporations and public forums to provide research-based, concrete information about sexual assault.
Professional Training
Despite the prevalence of sexual assault in Israeli society, strikingly there is a considerable dearth of knowledge regarding the treatment of sexual trauma among those professionals who are highly likely to encounter it in the course of their professional careers. Most Israeli academic institutions do not ensure that their students receive training regarding this issue or only briefly touch on the subject in a non-comprehensive manner. The Center therefore offers a vast array of trainings for a wide variety of professionals in order to ensure that they are equipped to help the survivors.
Activism
Alongside the Center’s ongoing programming, the Center employs a number of means of advocating for survivors. Demonstrations and marches are a grassroots method of addressing important incidents or social justice issues, as are activism and lobbying, community work and media campaigns.