Two services for survivors of sexual assault in Athens have changed the way they operate in the past few months.
Of the most notable changes, the Survivor Advocacy Program at Ohio University hired new leadership and the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program is no longer affiliated with the university.
SAP
SAP got a new director and survivor advocate/case manager this summer.
OU’s Division of Student Affairs named Kimberly Castor as the director and Kristin Waltz as the program’s survivor advocate/case manager, according to a previous Post report.
Castor — who started her position as SAP director on June 27 — will offer support and information to student survivors, have full programmatic responsibility in addressing campus-wide interpersonal violence and will be in charge of office staff and collaborations with prevention education efforts on campus. Her salary is $62,000, according to information obtained in a public records request.
Waltz started job as survivor advocate on July 18 and is providing crisis intervention and advocacy services to students who are survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. Her position will include case management, direct victim services, crisis intervention and emergency response. Her salary is $48,000, according to information obtained in a public records request.
Delaney Anderson, whose annual salary was $37,230, was the program coordinator of OUSAP, but left her position in October for a job outside the university, according to previous Post report. Anderson was a non-mandated reporter, and her departure left OUSAP without a licensed and credentialed program coordinator. A non-mandated reporter does not have to report suspicions of abuse.
On Nov. 16, OUSAP temporarily closed. In March, OU announced that SAP expects to reopen Fall Semester.
Instead of being called the Ohio University Survivor Advocacy Program as it was in the past, the program is now the Survivor Advocacy Program.
The purpose of the program is to provide confidential support and counseling to survivors of sexual assault, stalking and relationship violence. SAP now falls under the Division of Student Affairs, and the new program will report to Associate Dean of Students Patti McSteen.
SAP will remain in Lindley Hall and will set up an after-hours hotline with trained professionals.
SAOP
OU said in a news release that SAOP would close at the end of its grant cycle Sept. 30, but SAOP program Director Catherine Wargo said the program would remain open under a new fiscal agent, that will act as a sponsor.
Carly Glick, senior director of Communication Services, said the program had not yet confirmed a new fiscal agent.
Wargo said she doesn’t anticipate any lapse in services while the transition is occurring, and will continue services on Oct. 1.
The Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program stopped offering confidential counseling in May — a term it agreed to provide when it received state funding.
The program used to receive funding from the Victims of Crime Act Victims Fund and the Rape Crisis Program Trust Fund, according to a previous Post report.
The change came when OU altered its felony reporting policies. Because the center was supported, it had to abide by the university’s regulations.
Former OU spokeswoman Katie Quaranta said applicable law mandates reporting in certain situations, including child and elder abuse, imminent threat of harm to self and/or others, and, unless there is privilege, protects all communications between a professional legal adviser and his or her clients to report a felony.
There are exemptions to that statute, however, Katie Hanna, executive director of statewide advocacy group the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, said in a previous Post report.
“One of the exemptions is for a bona fide program that is focused on supporting survivors of sexual assault,” Hanna said.
SAOP has served Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Meigs, Morgan, Perry and Vinton counties since 2013 as part of OU’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion.
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