Sexual Assault Survivors’ Center moving, rebranding

Sarnia-Lambton’s Sexual Assault Survivors’ Center is getting a new name.

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The agency, which dates back to 1982, recently held focus groups to assess its brand, and found the name “didn’t feel like the right place for a lot of people to come,” said executive director Chantel Butterfield.

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“Because, when people think of sexual assault, they think that their experience has to be violent and extreme in nature,” she said.

But the center offers counseling and support for people who’ve experienced varying degrees of sexual and gender-based violence, she said.

“We’re finding that the name kind of has a harshness to it that people hear it and they think, ‘Oh, that’s not the place for me. I don’t want to take services away from someone who needs it more.’”

Hopes are to make the name more gender-inclusive too, she said.

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“Because we do offer services to everyone.”

The new name is still being finalized, she said, and will be announced soon, after another big change takes place.

The center with about a half-dozen employees who help more than 100 clients a month is leaving its home for the past 10 years on East Street, and moving downtown Feb. 12.

The new space at 145 Christina St. N., just north of Cromwell Street, will be larger, more welcoming, and have space available for agencies such as Victim Services, Ontario Works and others to meet with clients, Butterfield said.

The center has multiple units in the building on East Street, some across the hall or down the hall from others, she said.

“So, this will have us all be in the same space … and it’ll definitely feel more homey and comfortable than what we have now,” she said, noting the location near the waterfront also is better for clients to get outside, and closer to other places where clients might be referred.

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The center is raising $55,000, mostly for moving-related costs, including renovations and furniture, she said.

It received a $40,000 grant from the Canadian Women’s Foundation to help with some of those expenses, she said, noting that money already has been spent.

Another $13,000 Canadian Women’s Foundation grant is covering the rebranding costs, she said.

“Capital expenses like building walls or buying furniture, those kinds of expenses aren’t covered in ministry funding, and generally the grants around that type of funding are difficult to find and they’re in high demand,” she said.

About $5,000 has been raised in the campaign so far, she said, noting the center also is accepting furniture donations and fake plants for the new space.

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Fundraising initiatives include $60-a-ticket Sunday Fun Day fundraiser with the Bluewater Health Foundation at Widder Station in Thedford March 3, a gift basket raffle, and others, she said.

The Christina Street location will be open for people to check out the first Friday in February before the center moves in, she said, featuring a vendor market and workshops, and offering a “sneak peek” of what people can expect at the agency’s annual Inspire event in May that champions diversity and inclusion.

“We’ve heard from people … that they would like to see Inspire more often,” Butterfield said. “So, we thought, ‘What better way?’”

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