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San Antonio: We need your help.   What We Know Mid-June, we learned that the City of San Antonio Municipal Government is considering cutting $1.3M in funds for agencies that provide domestic violence “Safety Net” services (i.e. The Rape Crisis Center and Family Violence Prevention Services, Inc.). Several comments were made in the city council session that funding agencies — like ours — only appears to be INCREASING the need and that perhaps the City needed to reconsider their investment and reroute funding to Workforce Development. Some council members believe that if they target poverty, that it will positively impact sexual and domestic violence. And though in the grand scheme of things we understand the vulnerabilities of sexual violence, we also know that this is only a small piece of a much larger problem. There were several other comments made that were short-sighted; you may read them for yourselves on NOWCastSA.   Speak Out Starting July 1, our staff, volunteers and anyone officially representing our agency will be unable to speak to their council members as they begin the “block out” period, so we need your help. We ask for you to call your council member as a constituent and […]

TW: This powerful testimonial was sent to us by its creator, Natasha, about the effects that childhood sexual abuse by family members had on her – which started when she was in Pampers – and the effects of not being believed. She bravely details her journey from how she attempted to process the abuse as a child too young to understand what was happening, to her family turning their back on her when she revealed the abuse. Her newfound purpose is to share her story to help other people so they don’t kill or hurt themselves. Click here to share your story of being believed or not believed. Click here to learn more about our Start by Believing San Antonio campaign.

I was 8 until I was 16 and was sexually and physically assaulted by my father I told people no one believed me and he still walks free …I got out on my own and still suffer from things that happened to me during my childhood I will take a stand and believe in others and what they are going through Click here to share your story of being believed or not believed. Click here to learn more about our Start by Believing San Antonio campaign.

Believing me, and that I wasn’t at fault, was too much for my mother. Friends and counselors who believed me, and believed I did nothing to cause it, saved my life. #StartByBelieving Click here to share your experience of being believed or not believed. Click here to learn more about our Start by Believing San Antonio campaign.

Angela Peña has been an ambassador with The Rape Crisis Center since January 2016. She’s an RN and administrator for Special Kids Care and the Founder and President of Humor for Heroes, a nonprofit that provides a comedic outlet to military members and their significant others to honor them for their dedicated service.

On this beautiful Friday we would like to spotlight one of our amazing volunteers, Tawny. Tawny has been volunteering with The Rape Crisis Center since February 2015. She is a hospital advocate, helps with outreach events, and has answered calls on our crisis telephone hotline. She is that much-needed kind of volunteer that fills in the gaps wherever we might need her. She signs up for hospital shifts usually from 6pm till midnight during the week and on the weekend. When most of us are heading home to have dinner with our families, or heading out for leisure time with friends, Tawny makes herself available to be an advocate at the hospital for someone who has been sexually assaulted. In October of 2015, community relations was swamped with requests for outreach events. We sent out an email requesting help, and Tawny swooped in to save the day! She stopped by our center, picked up the outreach bin, and went out on a Tuesday evening to work an outreach table by herself. This was not only a great help to the community relations department, but gave peace of mind that the person doing the event was knowledgeable and passionate about our […]

You know how we all have that one person in our life that would be the first person we would call if we were on a game show because they know everything about everything? That person at The Rape Crisis Center is our board member, Randy Baker. That’s because Randy has had such vast and broad experiences. He’s a master gardener, worked at casinos for years, has journalism experience, an advertising background, previous college professor, and Master’s Leadership Program graduate…just to name a few. We here at The Rape Crisis Center have been extremely blessed to have Randy on our Board of Directors since August 2013. Randy goes above and beyond the job duties of a board member to attend our special events, speak at our mission tours, and even helped spearhead our strategic planning committee. Some of our staff had training in Washington D.C., last year and Randy volunteered to go with us as a part of the team. It was a sight to be seen as 6 women decades younger than Randy, struggled to keep up with him walking through the streets of DC. This man has no shortage of energy! It should also be said that he […]

Today we would like to spotlight a UTSA student and RCC volunteer, Jessica Garcia. She began her counseling internship at our center in August 2015. Since then, she has demonstrated great passion for the work we do here at the RCC. She has shown great compassion and commitment to her clients. Being a grad students can be a lot of work, but she has managed to get involved in facilitating groups, participated at RCC special events out in the community, brought brownies for Valentine’s Day (who doesn’t love that coworker?!) and always does it with a smile! One of the best compliments we received about Jessica from one of her coworkers is that she “opens her mind to learn from survivors…which is so important.” Her coworker said that Jessica felt like she wasn’t getting through to one of her clients so she asked her supervisor for help, looked for new ideas, and thought outside the box. She didn’t just keep trying to same things that weren’t working and she NEVER gave up. Her coworker said she saw Jessica actively work to try and make sessions better each week and was always her client’s supporter. That’s the definition of someone who […]

Adi has been volunteering with The Rape Crisis Center since September of 2015. Adi has been energetic and engaged with the RCC since she began volunteer training. She not only goes out to the hospital and provides advocacy services to survivors getting their sexual assault forensic examinations, she also does outreach events. Adi has given up her personal time in the morning before work, in the evenings after work, at lunch during work, and some of her weekends to come sit at an outreach table giving information to community members about The Rape Crisis Center. She is committed to letting this community know we exist and what services we provide. I am so impressed with her energy and enthusiasm for this cause. At an outreach event recently, someone was being confrontational about rape and what we do at the RCC. Adi handled it so calmly saying “I think The Rape Crisis Center promotes equality and consent”. She didn’t give any more space for that person to insult or berate us. I was struck by her composure that day. Thank you Adi for giving up so much of your time to this agency, to survivors, and to the cause of ending […]

It’s National Volunteer Week this week, and every day we’d like to spotlight one of our amazing volunteers. Today, we unanimously chose Elizabeth McCubbin. Ellie has been an intern with The Rape Crisis Center since January 2016. She’s graduating from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio this May. When her husband was stationed here in San Antonio, she contacted The Rape Crisis Center and asked if she could complete her internship here. Since the first day I spoke with her, she was driven, determined and well-organized. Ellie is not only an outstanding crisis intervention specialist — she is a wife and mother. She balances all of these roles, in a new city where she doesn’t have much support, while being an outstanding volunteer that is reliable, efficient and empathetic. I cannot say enough about this amazing young woman. She shows up and gives 100% to this organization and to survivors. I am honored to have met her and so grateful that she chose The Rape Crisis Center to intern with. What others have said about Ellie – “Ellie has been the greatest aid in the hotline department for RCC. She is always more than ready to help in whatever it is […]