BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas — In Texas, one in five women have been sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime, but there are resources in the Brazos Valley to support women.
“SARC has been in existence since 1983, so this year we celebrate our 40th anniversary and we were actually founded because a survivor of sexual assault--a local woman--had gone to the police department to report her assault and there were no resources for her and so she began advocating with our local law enforcement and judges to get a facility like SARC started," said Sexual Assault Resource Center Executive Director, Lindsey LeBlanc.
SARC has grown tremendously throughout the years. In 2022 they assisted more than 500 survivors of sexual assault through many different ways.
“We also have our education prevention department that focuses on preventing sexual violence we really want to focus on preventing sexual violence in our communities as well as our advocacy and crisis intervention," explained Leblanc. "Crisis intervention is more of our hotline or immediate trauma needs and our advocacy is our ongoing needs.”
Additionally, for women who have found themselves in an unplanned pregnancy, there are options for Brazos Valley women to turn to that are free.
Operations Director of Hope Pregnancy Center, Cameron Wells, explained their creation and purpose in the Brazos Valley.
“There was a group of concerned people in the community and saw a need for supporting women who are unintentionally pregnant and how that can just be a time where women are really nervous and need a lot of help and so this group of people decided to form hope and be a place where can offer free medical services, pregnancy testing, it also eventually became ultrasounds and just shower women with material assistance like baby clothes and parenting education so that they can be prepared,” said Wells.