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Advocate Editorial Board opinion: Victims need place to find help, support

  • By the Advocate Editorial Board
  • Originally published December 1, 2012 at 5:12 p.m., updated December 1, 2012 at 5:12 p.m.

Sexual assault is a horrible crime. Whether it is a random act of violence or carried out by a friend or family member, victims often take years to recover from the effects of such a heinous crime.

When Hope of South Texas was forced to drop sexual assault services due to funding issues, it looked like victims in the Victoria area would not be able to find the help and support they needed locally. But now, Mid-Coast Family Services will be providing sexual assault services to the Crossroads.

We are glad to see these services will still be available to victims in the Crossroads. These services help people who have been through a horrible experience, sometimes multiple times, and give them a way to deal with and recover from what has happened to them.

According to Ginny Stafford, Mid-Coast chief executive officer, the center was already equipped to handle these services with a hotline number, communication and administrative services. The center has a full-time crisis counselor who will sit with victims through the process of a forensic examination, as well as help with the paperwork and provide information and comfort to the victim and family members. There will also be short-term counseling and legal advocacy available.

Leticia Lechuta, crisis counselor at Mid-Coast, has been working as a counselor for eight years. She said she has only taken a few referrals so far but expects things to get busy soon.

We applaud Mid-Coast for taking this step to help victims in the Crossroads. The loss of funding to Hope of South Texas caused a cut in service that left a void in the Crossroads. Now, these victims have someone to stand with them and a place to turn to when in need.

We also applaud the United Way of Victoria County board of directors for the $30,000 grant to Mid-Coast for the sexual assault services program. We are proud to see area groups pulling together to meet this need in the Crossroads.

But this is not the end of fundraising for these services. Mid-Coast will need more money to keep these services. Lechuta said she is not aware of any fundraisers being planned currently, but once those events are planned, we encourage our readers to take part in keeping these essential services in the Crossroads.

We hope to see even more support for this program from the community in the days to come. Victims of sexual assault need somewhere to turn and someone to talk to.

"What happened to them does not define them," Lechuta said. "It happened, but it is not who they are."

With our help, victims of sexual assault won't have to find a way to face this reality alone. With our support, they can find a way to move on.

This editorial reflects the views of the Victoria Advocate's editorial board.