 Welcome, YouTube viewers. We will get started just momentarily. Hi, Dr. Metz. We're gonna, we're getting started right now so you'll just come on when Dulce introduces you. All right, we are going to go live now. Welcome. Welcome to today's event and we'll get started in just a moment as we let folks fill the Zoom room. In the chat box, you'll find a link to today's document which has library information as well as information about today's event. And it's a live document so we'll update it as the panel discusses and any resources that come up we will add there. Right, it is 12 o'clock. Thank you for joining us today. We really appreciate our Friday afternoon lunchtime events that have been occurring and we do do these Friday afternoons quite a bit so pay attention to our website. We have some pretty interesting panels. The good thing about these sort of things is they are available again on YouTube for you to watch. So let's jump in. Today, we are here for a panel about homelessness and sexual violence. And, you know, this is part of our one city one book campaign which we are celebrating and honoring the work of Chanel Miller and her book know my name. So if you haven't had a chance to check that out, please do you may get it from the library. She does the reading of her own audio book so that's always kind of interesting. We're working closely with SF war this campaign who is helping us out and helping you out if you need some assistance, their hotline and we'll put that in the chat momentarily. But they have been great partners we know this is a really tough topic in a tough book and it can be triggering for a lot of folks so please reach out for help. My email is also in this document if you need other resources. I am dying to help someone do some reference so give me an email. We want to welcome you to the unceded land of the Eloni tribal people and acknowledge the many raw Mutush Eloni tribal groups and families as the rightful stewards in the lands in which we work and reside in the Bay Area. The library is committed to uplifting the names of these lands and community members from these nations with whom we live. We encourage you to learn more about land rights and first person culture. This document has links to other resources and reading lists. We have many programs on our YouTube channel and we'll continue to host many programs around indigenous cultures and peoples. And if you know what native land you're joining us from today you can put that in the chat box. I like that. I would like to acknowledge and this is a statement from our racial equity committee who has been really working tirelessly since shelter in place and before but man they have stepped it up during our shelter in place and for obvious reasons. We want to condemn the horrendous violence acts against Asian and Asian Americans in our communities, our state and nationwide, both the reported and invisible crimes that have occurred. The library stands in solidarity with our Asian communities, neighbors and colleagues distressed and hurt by these attacks. The library is determined to work with our city and communities to recognize and dismantle the discrimination and violence that has been perpetrated. We acknowledge that these are these events are complicated by the entanglement of anti black and anti Asian stereotypes and reporting of these acts of violence. We acknowledge the reduction in humanity and harm done by the black community by providing coverage of hateful commentary that have been deployed. Anti black and anti-racian racism, both uphold white supremacy, and we are all harmed by these racial structures. This document contains a link to our most recent racial equity commitment. So we have several events left with one city one book so I'm just going to breeze through these so we can get through with our panel. But we've been having a Monday night series all March and all April so come check that out 7pm. We're doing some art this Monday so that's going to be exciting with Katie Petro. March and April poem jams with our. No longer for our seventh poet laureate Kim shock has a poetry night every second Thursday so the last two have been based about one city one book. So pretty intense night of poetry but also such an amazing community comes to this event so please join us. Part of the Monday series we're featuring Aisha Shayita Simmons who is a film director and a lambda award winner and an amazing human being joining us all the way from Washington DC we're going to screen her film know the rate documentary, which was a pretty revolutionary film when it was made and still is decade later. We're going to have the opportunity to have a question and answer and chat with the director afterwards so don't miss this she is amazing. More art on Mondays come check us out. I think all that's left now is art so it's going to be a fun way to talk about these topics a fun way to get through these topics and talk about healing and surviving and ways we get ways we survive and art definitely heals and art helps us survive. The amazing Dr Carol Queen will be in the house Tuesday April 13 talking about healthy sexual relationships. We are joined one more time by the amazing mere memoirs organization, who will be doing a virtual healing circle for survivors of childhood sexual assault. So many partners in this event. One city one book campaign is San Francisco public library is largest literary campaign, and we definitely do not do it alone. We have friends of the San Francisco public library help physically support all that we do, but we could not do it without organizations like the Human Rights Department sharp SF war, and the department on the status of women, along with all of these other partners you see here, it really does make such an amazing community to be able to reach into with our partners and just share this information and grow and heal. And again, one more shout out for SF war. These are really heavy topics and we understand that and we know it's triggering. So please again reach out to SF war, or you can reach out to me in my email and I can help you find resources. This is an amazing panel and I'm, I'm always just blown away by by my walk my work and who I get to like promote and who I get to work with is just amazing. So, this is part of April is part of sexual awareness month sexual assault awareness month. And we've partnered with the Human Rights Commission Office sharp sexual harassment and assault response prevention, and the Department of status of women. This panel is going to be moderated by Dulce Garcia, who was just recently in conversation with Chanel Miller for our semi private event at city college and us. Amazing amazing humans today. So I'm so so happy and honored. Dulce is a queer Chicano film born in Mexico City and raised in East Los Angeles. She received her master's degree in ethnic studies from San Francisco State. Her passion is an commitment to serve under representative under represented and underserved communities is rooted in anti oppression framework. She is the policy director for the Office of sexual harassment and assault response and prevents and prevention sharp for for the city and county of San Francisco, advocating for survivors and transforming the system used to address sexual violence in in our city. She believes that survivors are the experts of their own lives, and that all forms of oppression must be eradicated in order to end sexual violence with over 20 years of leadership experience. She has provided professional development and technical assistance to state agencies, community based organizations and universities throughout United States, advocating for self empowerment through education that is non judgmental and accessible to audiences. Dulce is a filmmaker and dancer. In her free time, you can catch her performing on stage with luck catcher luck cash dance Academy, and the only queer and transgender, but Chata and salsa dance Academy in the United States. Since I've had this opportunity work with so many partners, everyone knows don't say and they're like she is amazing. So, without further ado, I am stopping share and turning it over to don't say. Thank you so much. I appreciate you doing that introduction and the land acknowledgement. Before we get started, I also want to take a moment to thank of course the San Francisco Public Library, our partner in this panel the department on the status of women and women. And all of our panelists, as well as director shell Davis of the Human Rights Commission, and director Kelly dense more from sharp for the support in making this event happen. Together started I want to start off with the bios for each one of our panelists. I'm going to start with Adriana King. She is originally from Mexico, but has found a home in sunny California. She is a trans woman whose art often often depicts Latina activism. King is a California state to the fight rape crisis counselor, and I've been doing outreach for us a force is 2011, bringing information of our resources to the transgender community, and, and on on housed women. And she creates beautiful work, both digitally and on paper and feels like art brings her peace and tranquility. Her work is inspired by her philosophical mind and blooming imagination. We're also joined by Alicia Maldonado, who is the director of community initiatives as happens to the woman against rape. She is a woman of color led volunteer based organization that has provided rape crisis services to survivors of sexual assault for over 47 years. SF is the only community based rape crisis center in San Francisco, and they are committed to addressing sexual violence, and the root causes that sustain it through a survivor centered and anti oppression framework. Maldonado has been with SF for nine years in the prevention education in our report program, working with youth, adults and staff of all backgrounds throughout San Francisco, providing training and prevention education around sexual violence, entire by standard intervention and healthy relationships. Her work is centered on serving survivors and allies in communities who live at the intersections of multiple forms of oppression, providing education tools for healing and response, building leadership and community organizing. She strongly believes in the power of survivor leadership and the movement for sexual violence. Maldonado is a queer Chicana originally from San Diego and has made him home in the Bay for 15 years. She finds joy in healing in the love for cooking exploring the outdoors, gardening and birding. Next, we have Kristen more who is the director of programs at San Francisco State House in organization whose mission is to empower and support women who are experiencing housing instability and sexual exploitation or trafficking by creating survivors and spaces services advocacy and community education. More has nearly 15 years of experience working in community mental health and women's programming with a particular focus on sexual trauma recovery and harm reduction. Over her career, she has consistently advocated for survivor centered approach to services and strives to elevate the voices and experiences of the women most impacted by systemic oppression, the prison industrial complex, interpersonal violence and sexual assault. She holds a master's in counseling psychology from the right Institute and is a licensed management family therapist, who also maintains a psychotherapy practice. In her off time, you can usually find her out in nature or curled up at home with a good book and a great cat. And finally, we have Dr Sarah met who graduated from Pepperdine University in 2009. Dr Mets has extensive experience working with survivors of trauma, substance use disorders, combat veterans, victims of violent crime, justice involved adults and complex PTSD. Prior to coming to UCSF in 2015. Dr Mets works for the worked for the VA Apollo also health system at the National Center for PTSD and the homeless veterans we have a limitation program, a nationally recognized residential treatment program for homeless veterans. Dr Mets specializes in a variety of evidence based practices and is a certified therapist and cognitive processing therapy and skills training and effective and interpersonal regulation. Dr Mets has been with the trauma recovery center since 2015, and is now the director of the division of trauma recovery services, clinical faculty at UCSF, and the chief psychologist for Zuckerberg San Francisco general hospital. So thank you everyone for being here today. I'm going to invite our panelists to turn on their cameras and go ahead and unmute themselves. Since this is a conversation that we will be having with each other. Thank you everyone for joining us both here on zoom and live. And again, you're welcome to put questions in the Q amp a, as we go along. So to get us started today. I want to start by beginning to name, we can start beginning to name some of the ways that homelessness or be margining how impact survivors of sexual violence, so that we can set the last case. Alicia, you don't mind starting us off in your work at SF or can you share how you have witnessed homelessness intersect with sexual violence. Yes, thank you so much to the library for having us. Yeah, you know the way that we see homelessness and sexual violence intersect through SF war. We have our work centers with homeless folks who are survivors through our direct services and also through our prevention and outreach. So what we have seen, you know today and historically is, of course, folks who are survivors who experienced sexual violence while they are homeless right and homeless people experiencing higher rates than housed people of sexual violence. So that could be from right from sexual harassment to, you know, sexual assault to rape and physical violence being included in that as well. You know, so that could be on the street, it could be in encampments within shelters. We have economic survival activities such as sex work. And so, you know, not only are folks assaulted on the street and while homeless but also the factors of sexual violence that can lead to homelessness. Right and that could be factors, you know, such as, you know, landlords and building managers who sexually harass or assault tenants that could be roommates, family members, domestic violence and incidents of sexual assault that lead to people really having to make decisions about whether they stay where they are in house in a dangerous situation or whether they have to leave. And that could also include, you know, situations where they have to keep family safe or other people safe. So really this intersection, you know, isn't just about, you know, having a home or not it's also about, you know, being very multifaceted it's not a single issue of just homelessness for survivors who are homeless but it really calls, you know, into place a lot of different intersecting needs and also really calls upon us to think creatively about complex housing needs that aren't just, you know, suited for one issue but for all these multiple issues that we see intersecting. Yeah, thank you so much for naming that you know sexual violence can happen while you are homeless, but also experiencing sexual violence can put you at risk to become homeless right or if you're marginally house and living in an SRO and can experience, you know, homelessness there right they're like a city agency provided housing right and so definitely, you know, as you mentioned, creates this place where we have to be creative of how we address this. I want to open it up to the other panelists that they would like to add anything else around, you know, setting the landscape and we're talking about these intersections of homelessness and sexual violence. Do you want to say something, Adriana, do you want to say something? Yeah, I would like to say that one of the ways that affected me being homeless and being a survivor is that I didn't have any like good coping skills to survive the pain that I was going through. So my coping skill was like, you know, just getting drunk every day to to in a way to like to numb the pain that I was going through. So that was that was one of the actually that was the only coping skill that I have at the end. Now I have better coping skills. So that's one of the things that I would like I wanted to say that is we kind of find like healthy coping skills for survivors. And Adriana for mentioning that and if you don't mind, can you can actually keep talking a little bit about what are some of the barriers that homelessness or monitoring how survivors face when trying to access services here in San Francisco. In my case, one of the barriers that I had was that even though I'm bilingual and I speak English and Spanish, when I'm going through like very stressful moments or painful moments. I, it gets easier for me to, you know, to express myself in Spanish, even though I speak English, you know, so finding a case worker or therapist that speaks my language and understand my culture. I think makes it easier for me to, to look for help. And if I go to a place that where I don't feel welcome or they don't speak my language or understand my culture, it makes it if it difficult, it makes it difficult for me to for to look for the assistance or help. Yeah. And then I've had the pleasure of working with you and I know that you know you've had such a powerful healing journey. Not so much that you're, you know, working out as a for yourself. And at the time when you were trying to seek services. You know, it's like language access web, you know, did you have any other challenges that came up for you, you know, either because you were, you know, a trans woman and documented or like your ID or anything like that, and trying to access services. Well, yeah, I was afraid to, to even get an ID because, you know, I'm undocumented and I was afraid to go to the NB and get it for stuff like that. And sometimes when you know, like, like, police will ask me for an ID, they will make it sound like it was my fault I didn't have an ID. Back then, you know, undocumented people couldn't get an ID. So if I made a report, people, I mean, the police asked for my ID, they will always when I say I don't have an ID, they would like kind of like blame me for not having an ID. They would like, you know, and it wasn't my fault. I mean, I don't make the laws that, you know, that weren't preventing me from having an ID, because even if I wanted to have an ID, and even if I didn't have, even if it didn't have, I didn't have the fear to get an ID, the laws were preventing me from having an ID. Yeah, yeah, you're definitely naming these like, you know, both the interpersonal or like the individual like barriers of like fear, right, being afraid. But also these like systemic barriers right of like there's these laws that existed that make it hard for you to get documentation and then you have another system, like the police like blaming you right like if you're trying to seek services or you're trying to seek help, or make a police report and now they turn around and blame you for not having proper documentation, you know, I can see how I can feel very defeating and, you know, not hopeful or not, you know, like there's going to be any help. That was really helpful when, you know, when I was trying to like make a report because I didn't have an ID and if I didn't have an ID, they would make it sound like I was trying to hide something, or if I use a female name, they would say, you know, stuff like, well, you don't look like Adriana, you look like Jorge. That was really hard for me and, you know, that made me not to, you know, not to trust the police and not to seek help when I need it. And also, like if I go to any other agency, they might say the same stuff to me and, you know, if I'm a transgender woman, I'm not going to go to a place where I want to feel like they're going to be calling me, you know, no, you don't look like Adriana, you look like Jorge or they will be blaming me for not having an ID. That made me, you know, stay longer on the streets and not seeking for help or any resources. Yeah, we're really talking here. I mean, you're really naming these intersections of like one China access services right but then dealing with xenophobia dealing with racism dealing with transphobia. That just kind of prolongs, you know, this cycle of violence that you're experiencing, right, not just sexual violence, but violence from the systems of these individuals. Kristen, if you don't mind, can you talk a little bit about how some survivor populations are being looked overlooked in San Francisco when we talk about homelessness and sexual violence. Absolutely. So, you know, just echoing some of the comments from Alicia and Adriana, I want to point out that people who are on the margins, right, are often re victimized in the systems that are supposed to be of support. And the reality is that survivors in shelter environments don't always have basic safety that even to get to a shelter can be really challenging for sexual assault sexual exploitation survivors. There's a real problem around data bias when it comes to thinking about who is on house, how we're targeting services, particularly because this is a library event I want to mention a great book. Carolyn create a Perez wrote a book called invisible women, data bias in a world designed for men and it looks at everything from urban planning to this exact issue around sexual assault and homelessness, and really goes into how women and gender expansive people are not as counted when we're developing these systems because of the way that they're homeless because it might look like couch surfing because you may not be able to access providers because maybe you're living with someone who you know as Alicia mentioned is also exploiting you or assaulting you. And even though the data may not reflect the need we know that the need is much larger than what we're seeing, particularly because if we're talking about the most marginalized communities undocumented folks, trans and gender expansive people. And the work that's really in touch with that community and being done in that community is grassroots volunteer driven small staff and they don't have the power to generate the data needed to really compel services. I kind of like that really quickly, and then also get us thinking about ways to make the spaces that we do have safer for survivors, you know, creating shelters and housing options where survivors have a higher degree of control over their safety personal safety emotional safety. I think that's another important thing to bring into the conversation. Yeah, definitely. Thank you for sharing. I want to, you know, open it up to the other panelists if they would like to add anything else around how, you know, certain populations are overlooked. When we talk about this topic. Yeah, I'd love to add and build off that Kristen thank you for bringing up, you know, some of these populations that are overlooked I mean I think a couple of populations that you know in the city are also overlooked or this issue is entire family units. You know, certainly seeing, you know how especially coven and the economic impacts of coven have really exacerbated the dire like economic conditions that families are living in and, you know, also experiencing the trauma of violence and sexual violence. And, you know how oftentimes our shelter systems and housing systems, we lack affordable housing we know that in San Francisco. We know that, you know, a lot of times families, if they want to go to shelters have to be split up, or can't stay as particularly if there's, you know, mixed gender, you know, children of teenage, you know, teenage age or etc. You know, also the population of folks who are homeless and survivors with disabilities. It's definitely a population that goes overlooked and also can be really challenging to find housing that's accessible to folks, you know folks access needs. You know, also because I work a lot with youth I always want to uplift that, you know, young people in general experience incredibly high rates of sexual violence. And sexual assault, both within families and targeted from outside of families is incredibly high. And the intersection of that with other forms, other identities right such as LGBTQ youth who are homeless. You know, often cite that sexual violence is a reason that they had to leave their home or were expelled from their home. The incarcerated young women and adult women who are incarcerated that sexual violence and have the survival and coping strategies that were criminalized throughout their coping, often being a common denominator in how they entered the criminal legal system. Immigrant women right who are face, you know, sexual violence as a direct threat is a thinking of it as an inevitable inevitability as they cross through, you know, especially Central American women as they cross from Mexico and the more borders you have to cross through the more your risk of sexual violence rate rises so you know all these populations and populations that we have high, you know, here in San Francisco and these are, you know, also ways that people who are, you know, homeless they have to cope through all of this and and sexual violence and the threat of increased violence so you know I just yeah I really wanted to uplift you know that what you were saying Kristen and really that need for safe space that can not just address that you don't have a place that you're living right but all of these other factors of how we cope and how we can even sit down to ourselves and say you know what is it that I need and and how can I get through this. Yeah, thank you for uplifting those voices because I think that you know, especially with youth, you know, we often talk about we often talk about the school of prison pipeline for young men of color right but we are, but we don't often hear about how sexual violence specifically child sexual abuse is a pipeline for young women right to enter the criminal justice system and then, you know, as I mentioned right like being trans like oftentimes you're not hired. And you have to do survival sex work and that gets criminalized right. So we're really talking about you know even with the immigrant communities we're really talking about how the more come you know the more identity that someone holds that are oppressed by our society. The more compounded their experience with sexual violence and other forms of violence right happens and so it really you know we can't be like oh you your survivor sexual assaults like, you know, here go as a general get a rape kill like right like no like they might be undocumented they might have like an asylum case coming in tomorrow you know and for like the priorities are the needs of survivors in one single moment may not always be around sexual violence right when we're talking about survival and healing so thank you for naming that and elevating those voices. So I do want to spend a little bit of time thinking about space and where survivors who are homeless or margin like margin house can go. Are there safe spaces in San Francisco and what is that like. So Adriana, you know I want to kind of come back to you can you talk a little bit about you know you talk. Can you talk about how your journey right like you how you didn't always have the most healthy coping mechanisms but you clearly seek services in San Francisco and they have provided you with you know the tools to find healthier ways to cope and so maybe you can talk about some of those services or some of those programs that really helped you. So one of the places that really helped me was a mission every resource center on Thursday, they have a what they call ladies night, which is like for two hours they open only to ladies. Six gender women and transgender women and this is one place where I really feel safe because you know sometimes it like if you're homeless and you go to a dropping center where you can take a shower and and use other services sometimes you will find that the one person that is abusing you sexually or assaulting you sexually and and you have to go there because you cannot know what else to take a shower or or use those services and you if you go there and just you in the same place. The survivor I mean the abuse there is or the assaulter is using the same services that you are makes it very difficult for the survivor. Yeah, so they have on Thursday nights they have the what they call ladies night. For two hours they open only for for women and they provide services and a meal for for the for the women is one of the one of the places where I really felt saved and and I feel like a Google Google there without risking being you know, bumping into my sort of my abuser. So, um, what is that was one of the places that really helped me a lot. And the other place is Ella which is a program for transgender women and where, you know, when I went there I feel like I was like it was like my family because all over all the other transgender women went through this, you know, a lot of the same experiences that I went through. And I could talk to them about them about those experiences and and kind of like give ideas to each other or how to survive or how to help each other. Yeah. And when I first got to San Francisco those services. Those. Yeah, those services didn't exist. There was no trans there was no Ella for trans Latinas. And there was no ladies night. I'm in a mission neighborhood research center. There was, there wasn't even a dropping center in the on the mission, you know, where I could go and use the restroom or, you know, so those two places are one of the two places that really helped me a lot. Another place that really helped me a lot since I like drawing and for a long time I was a very introvert and shy person that was afraid to talk about my experiences or didn't know how to express my experiences. The hospitality house had a studio that was free for homeless people were in that was one of my scapes where I could go and, you know, scrape escape to my art and express in my art what I, what I was afraid to tell, you know, other people, or, or, or, or to express what people didn't want to hear from me. That was one of my scapes, you know, hospitality house, our studio. And that was one of my coping skills. Thank you for sharing. I don't know. Um, with other folks on the panel like to talk about what are those places that are that are safe here in San Francisco or what are those services available to survivors. I think you're talking to us. I called in on the phone, but I guess you can't hear me that way. Can you? No, I guess not, but we can hear you now. Okay. Sorry. Zoom stuff. Thank you guys so much for having me as part of this panel is just an honor to sit with everybody in this community. So, you know, I represent the trauma recovery center. We also are part of the rape treatment center. And so we certainly hope, you know, that we are experienced as a safe space for survivors to come. You know, we offer trauma services for a wide array of crime survivors. But most assuredly, you know, for sexual assault survivors, immigration status is not a barrier insurance status is not a barrier. You know, our services are free of charge. We provide services in a variety of languages. If we don't have clinicians that speak the language themselves. We do have access to in person interpreters. You know, so we, we try to really practice, you know, from a cultural humility anti racism social justice framework, you know, with the work that we do really uplifting the voices of survivors and helping them find new coping tools, right? I think like Adriana explained, it can be really hard to know what to do on your own, right? And people do the best that they can to cope. And so we work really hard to learn our clients to figure out what works for them because what works for one survivor isn't what works for another survivor and as you were mentioning earlier, they have different needs and different priorities in any given moment, right? And so we provide a lot. We also work with asylees and asylum seekers. So we do help with psychological asylum evaluations. We help with UBSA applications. We help folks get access to entitlements, financial entitlements. We do our best, you know, to connect folks with housing resources, you know, and admittedly that's that's a really big limitation here in San Francisco. And when it's exceedingly unfortunate, you know, I think for the reasons that everybody's, you know, already mentioned, it just becomes a cycle, you know, and without safe housing, you know, it's nearly impossible to keep yourself safe. And so, you know, I think as a resource need, right, that's probably number one, you know, on the list. You know, we, we have clinicians that have all kinds of expertise, art therapy, we offer groups and individuals. So, you know, we really do try to just meet the needs of every individual that walks, you know, through our door. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing. Alicia, I would love to hear thoughts from you as far as like, you know, as support is the only rape crisis center in San Francisco. And, you know, you all are so special in the sense that, you know, you start from this anti oppression framework right when you're when you're addressing sexual violence. I would love to hear from you about how, you know, as a for uses that framework to fight sexual violence and create healing spaces for survivors. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, I think I think about spaces and anti oppression framework. And I think about, as some of the other panelists have mentioned, right, the idea that like, each serve like this survivor centeredness also means right that like a survivors knows what's best for themselves right that we trust survivors to know how to best navigate their lives even when we do need to build more skills when we do need to build, you know, coping and figure out how to navigate the system that the needs, you know, that we're listening so that the needs are coming from them. And those are what we're addressing not necessarily what we believe that they need to address. And so I think about, you know, a lot of our community partners that we work with that are culturally specific, you know, and how empowering that can be to a survivor right. So, you know really supporting and uplifting that community specific programming is really important community building programming is incredibly important, particularly to like break down the isolation that homeless survivors can feel and experience. Right, so if our go to as advocates is, you know, a safety plan of, you know, who has your back, like, who have you told, you know, who is it that, you know, is can be there in case of an emergency and someone doesn't have anyone or doesn't have that community. They're, you know, that's a really big wrench in a safety plan right. In addition to that, you know, really supporting survivors through, you know, building coping mechanisms as well so whether that be through groups, you know, having low barrier, you know, spaces like drop in centers, you know, spaces that are reliable and for people to start building relationships. And then I don't want to ever underestimate, you know, sometimes it's really that the survivor because so many systems do fall short. You know, are the ones who can keep themselves the most safe. And so really again coming back to trusting survivors and that means for us meeting people where they're at right so we do a call here to peer where not only can survivors who are homeless when when they're ready or if they want to do our rape crisis counselor training so that we have people who have had that experience of homelessness and sexual violence, actually supporting their survivors who are still homeless, but also meeting survivors where they're at so we do. We support ladies night through monthly outreach at ladies night but we also partner with women's community clinic to do SRO outreach and street outreach monthly. So just meeting people where they're at I think is also incredibly important, particularly if people have experienced just, you know, a breakdown in the systems that do exist. Yeah, and that safety plan can look one way for 24 hours and then the next day can look very different right or I can change depending on where they're at and what their needs are. Thank you for sharing Alicia. Kristin, can you talk a little bit about safe house and how you are safe spaces. Absolutely, I think, going along with what some of the other panelists have named, we're really focused on providing safe housing space for survivors as a critical building block, because survivors do know what they need to move forward. They don't have their own power and intuition, but if you don't have space to cultivate that and to feel safe utilizing that then it's really an uphill climb. And I really just want to underline how dire the need for more housing is I think we all know that living in San Francisco that we're in a housing crunch. We're at particularly anti violent shelter beds for women non binary gender expansive folks. We're talking about 100 beds city wide, and that includes domestic violence shelters sexual exploitation, sexual assault. And so that's nowhere near what we need in terms of capacity so I just want to name that. So safe house, we are approaching this through a suite of programming so the core program is our transitional housing program where we support survivors for up to 18 months with wraparound services, really just focused on providing both emotional and financial support so that people can move into independent housing that feels safe that they have control over. And then we also have a drop in center on Hyde Street in the tender line the Hope Center, which opened and September of 2018. That's a place where survivors can come have access to basic hygiene case management, housing resources, really just a safe space to be, you know, as Adriana mentioned, protected a little bit like you're not going to run into your home with some anonymity that you can really come get support in that space. And through that program we have been looking at expanding the housing resources we're offering so right now we're also managing a rapid rehousing program for survivors, an emergency hotel stay program. So trying to really be innovative about how we're meeting that need around housing and the gaps that we're noticing in the city. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. I kind of want to come back a little bit to Adriana, you know, we've all Kristen Alicia and you have talked about how, and Sarah have talked about like what are those spaces right and you talked about those spaces, you attending as a recipient right. Can you share a little bit of how it feels not to be on the other side right like, so ladies night right like you were there, using the services to shower to get food and get their services and, and now you're on the other end right now you're the one doing educating, you know, other survivors on healthy coping skills. Can you talk a little bit about your, you know, how it feels for you to kind of come back full circle and this like really beautiful healing way. I mean, I think outreach is a very important job because one of the reasons that I that I that I stay on the streets so long and I didn't look for her when I what I really needed one of the reasons was that I didn't know about the services I didn't know that's a word assisted I didn't know about other agencies that could, you know, provide resources for us for survival of sexual assault or sexual violence. So, yeah, I wasn't on very. Yeah, I didn't know about those, you know, those services or as a word or anything like that. So, I think doing outreach is very important because other girls, especially like there's always newcomers in in San Francisco there's always newcomers. I, I, I, every year I see the new trans Latinas, they just got here from the country, they don't speak English and they don't know anything about the services or as a word, and they, they're the ones that suffer most of the sexual violence. And, you know, so me being able to be able to be able to be there at late at night, providing information about those services. I think it's very important because, you know, is one thing that I can help them to to seek out help. If they know there is help, they can, you know, it will be easier to and, and, and they feel comfortable talking to me because I speak Spanish, I speak their language and they know I am a survivor too. So they feel confident to talk to me about, you know, what, you know, they're going through. So it feels very rewarding to be able to provide this information to anyone that needs it, you know, and the, the, the bull prevent other girls to to, to, to, to stay that long, you know, thinking information or resources like I did, like I spent like 20 years on the streets, you know, sleeping on the streets and being assaulted many times. Many times I would like be sleeping on the street and we woke up like when somebody one, when a guy is was already inside my blanket trying to, you know, to assault me. And that happened many times and it was really scary. One time, there was this guy that when I woke up he was already in my blankets touching me, and I woke up and, and I see this guy, this stranger like who I never seen. He was bleeding from his head. And that was really scary. Not only he was touching me, he was also breathing, bleeding, and he didn't know he was bleeding. He was like he was so high that he didn't know he was bleeding. And he was like trying to rape me. And I just got up and run and run, run still, till I couldn't see him anymore and it was really scary. I left everything there, my, my backpack, my blankets, and being a survivor or something like that. I think I'm able to understand other newcomers that go through this kind of stuff and tell them, you know, I've been through this, but you can find help. The way I did, I found help. You know, there's resources, there's, there's a, there's some SF or there's all these places where you can, you know, go and feel safe and find help in your language. Thank you so much, Adriana for sharing. I know, you know, that's, it's so happy to hear and, and, and, you know, I've been able to be a witness to your resilience, to your brilliance, right, we've been able to do outreach together and present together and so I, I, I have, I feel very lucky that I've been, I've been able to witness how your growth and, and, you know, it's not just about outreach and it's not just about a referral right it's about having a warm handoff right to be able to say like Adriana or you know, someone who has been here, you know, for a while and knows that you do this work and has a new, you know, a new trans Latina come and say like hey go talk to Adriana right like this is the person you need to go to she knows and have other information that you need for them to have a connection and really for us to find, you know, community and, and healing in the sense of, you know, for us by a survivor where we know we're not going to be judged because we know that this person, you know, has had similar experiences as knows where to go or at least point us in the right direction. So thank you so much for sharing that. So I want to come back to you. That's okay and maybe we can, you know, this pandemic has has definitely impacted all of us right it has highlighted already the injustices that existed him and systems have highlighted the many ways that people are facing barriers right and trying to access services and so I was hoping you can talk a little bit about what are those added barriers that you know shelter in place has had on survivors trying to access services and you know how have they been impacted. Oh wait we can't hear you. How about now. Yes. Alright, hopefully there's no echo. So I was saying, thank you, thank you for asking that question and you know I think one of the immediate thoughts that our community had was what's happening to our survivors. You know what's happening now behind these airtight shut doors. And a real fear that people were forced to shelter in place in a really unsafe environment. You know I think we can't say conclusively right that this is directly what happened but our numbers of sexual assault survivors for example seeking services at Zuckerberg. So seeking medical care or seeking forensic exams drop significantly, sometimes greater than 50%. And we knew that didn't mean that sexual assaults weren't happening. You know so I think the pandemic has one made it maybe more fearful people more apprehensive to literally go out and get services that they need. But I think a fear is also that people are stuck and unable despite wanting and needing you know to get services and so you know historically. And of course this is not the case for all you know folks that are in you know difficult and perhaps violent relationships. In normal day to day right there's more organic opportunity for them to go out of the home right to pick up children from school to go to the market to go to the doctor, right, where now they, they couldn't, you know, use that day to day life to maybe go get services. Further, you know finding a safe private place in home to receive services virtually, right. That they might not have that option. So I think you know we've been very concerned about people accessing services that they need and also a rise a potential rise, given all the different stressors, right that coven has exacerbated and knowing that with that increases of substance use increases, you know of intimate partner violence increases potentially of child abuse and so you know I think we're all, we've all been holding that anxiety and worry around what is happening behind closed doors and and our people getting what they need. Yeah. Thank you so much. I have two more questions on my end and I see a couple of questions going on in the chat room which we'll get to in a little bit. And so you know I know that we have, we have the platform into 115 so just wanted to give folks a little fyi because I know some folks have just the one hour lunch so you might be logging off at one o'clock so make sure you get your questions in there you want to get them answered and so, you know this is for all of you. The idea of San Francisco could do one thing to improve the ways that helps or supports homeless survivors. What would it be. Well I can start if that's okay. I think I already named you know the most basic need for increased housing, but I also would like to drive home. I think it's about half the population when we're talking about services and housing for women and so I think there's a real call for me and from others doing the sort of work to stop seeing this as a niche issue. Both around sexual assault domestic violence but also that the particular needs of unhoused women and gender expansive folks deserve the same level of attention and resource. As we pay to the broader unhoused population. And so I think my call really is to look at the systems that exist, really audit why they feel so unsafe. And why so many women, you know, feel it safer to sleep on the street then in some of our homeless shelters, and be curious and look to survivor leadership around creating additional housing resources that feel safer. And really meet that gap in service. Thank you for sharing. Other folks have any ideas of how we can invest in survivors. Yeah, I just want to echo that I mean I think we know that there's an incredible housing need and that you know all these other ideas that we have of, you know, creating, you know other programs to address the needs of survivors is, you know housing is going to in so many ways. And so, in addition to that you know I think that there could be a you know if I'm dreaming, you know if I if we're let go of you know ways that we have done things to just do things the way we have done them for the sake of doing them the same way. And then I think that you know we could dream about you know housing that can also be culturally specific to groups who, you know, do have these intersections where you know maybe there is a you know wide range of language languages spoken or maybe there is you know immigration needs met at that same shelter or maybe there is an LGBTQ survivor shelter space you know that is specific to survivors and you know I think that would be an incredible like extra leap that we could make as a city if we really invested in our funds and our you know creative energies I think we have incredible services here and uniting the powers of everything that we know there, plus the backing of the finances of the city would be wonderful. In addition to that I just want to say to that I think something that covert has really shown us is that, you know, making direct financial payments and support to survivors. So, you know, who are general population going through coven and have lost their jobs and, you know, stimulus payments and stuff but for survivors of sexual assault. And again, trusting survivors, you know, not managing and micromanaging what we believe they should be spending their money on, but survivors telling us that their needs are that you know a check getting money is going to help them get a room somewhere, be able to pay someone to stay with them for a little while be able to get food be able to relocate you know so really just trusting that you know if we give the direct financial payments that survivor again right it's going to know what they need in that moment, particularly if we don't have somewhere else to send them. Yeah, absolutely. I have a note here. Someone is referring to our city our home, which was created in 2006 2018 sorry by proposition C, which imposed additional business taxes to create a dedicated fund which is our city our home, or also known as the fund to support services for people experiencing to prevent homelessness. And so the question is, has safe house or other organizations, working with our city our home. You know, have they created or no do they carve out for women in the housing fund. I think it's a question now. Great question and I actually don't know the answer. In my experience, you know working directly with safe house I don't think it's something that we've had access to directly that's not to say it doesn't support city programming that also supports our work and we definitely work with other communities similar to ours to do advocacy around how money is spent and funding is spent on a broader level, but I would be happy to hear more if people have information to share. And I have another question here so outside of financial contributions. Are the items in high demand that people can donate. And it's so what's the best way to get saved items that items to the, to the respective organizations. I'm assuming most most folks are coming in, or, you know, watching from the Bay Area but if you also have like statewide or national, you know, suggestions will take them to. Yeah, you know I think basic needs are something that are always in demand. Like clothing, you know items for hygiene shoes, you know things that like, you know thinking about your own, you know needs a day to day you know folks who don't have funds to, you know, access that. You know, I know that there are several drop in centers that utilize giving you know that including safe house. Ladies night does that. And, you know, I know St. Anthony's also does clothing clothing giveaways. So yeah I think those basic needs are always of important like a lot of importance. So that people can have their basic needs met on a day to day basis, including things like sleeping needs right like sleeping bags and tense things to be able to to shelter where they are. I encourage folks to reach out to you know their local organization and ask them like what are those things that you need. You know I also know that like people in our own community has stepped up. There's a lot of you know, homeless encampments that have popped up because of the pandemic and because the lack of housing and you know people get creative. One of my good friends has all these makeup bags from our her ipsy subscriptions right that she gets monthly and so she took all those bags filled them in with menstrual, you know, hygiene products, socks. You know, a little clip bar, and then just pass them out and was like, you know, it was about 30 of them and she just walked over and was like this is what I have. I'm really grateful. You know and I encourage folks to do that you know and on that note I also encourage you to just do it from the goodness of your heart, and not because you're going to live stream it right like people, people don't need to see you being an ally right If you need people to donate so that you can go you know clear out the, the section from the, what do you call it from like travel side stuff right, go clear out that section, ask your friends for fun, make those bags and give them out but there's no way to like, you know, feel yourself doing it right because I think that oftentimes, and I need to like want to do good we want people to see us doing good. Right. And you know we don't we don't want to do like this poverty pouring right like that's not that's not the goal. So, I want to be, you know mindful of time as well. I encourage folks to ask questions. But you know coming back to you are. You all have been doing this work for a very long time. And so I'm curious, you know, where do you find inspiration to continue doing this work. I think you're in about people's violence people know challenges and barriers and the oppression that they face and so I'm curious as how you know you feel yourself to continue doing this work for the long run. And I will actually start with Sarah, she's the first one in my little block. Thank you. Yeah, it's such a good question. And honestly, every time somebody walks in my door. My breath gets taken away how they are willing to take that risk of asking for help and sharing, you know, some of the most vulnerable experiences that they've had and that to me is very honoring. And that that's what it is, you know, to see some to be able to be part of somebody's healing journey is absolutely just incredible and I think one of life. One of life's biggest honors. And so that's, that's what it is for me. Thank you. Christine, would you like to share. Absolutely, I definitely echo, you know what was just said and I also think for me it's really about the community that we have as advocates as survivors as you know women walking through the world I really draw a lot of strength and satisfaction from being a part of a community that is really collaborative, you know, it's never been my experience that there's competition or undercutting that people really want to come together and find solutions and collaborate and I find that really, really inspiring some happy to be a part of the panel today. Thank you, Kristen. Alicia, would you like to share. Thank you. You know, I long term, I'm a survivor of child sexual assault. I, I was lucky in my life to have, you know, support and and supportive people in my life and also was able to be like introduced to organizing you know community organizing at a younger age that I think honestly really propelled, you know me into being able to see what you know survivor leadership really means and how impactful that is in our various movements. So I think long term that's something that like, you know, just made me believe in transformation. I think right now in this particular hardship of a year something that's really propelling me and giving me hope kind of looking at the other side of the coin of this disaster that we've all been living through is that you know, it also means that again we are not tethered to necessarily how we've always done things that we have a collective moment in time to really reimagine and you know think big about how can we push for change and create a world which is more equitable is more just. And that doesn't leave others behind and so I just an interesting moment I think that we can leverage together. I'm not going to share what keeps you, what fuels you. My inspiration comes from well, many years ago when I was going through, you know, like the pain of being a survivor of sexual violence. I always wish that there was somebody there that will listen to me with a judgment and that will give me emotional support. But there was nobody there for me back then, there was nobody that will listen to me without judgment everyone I talked to will judge me or and not provide the emotional support that I needed. I became the emotional support for and I became the person that would listen with a judgment for other trans Latinas. Then, you know, I, you know, sometimes they come to me and they share to with me things that they wouldn't share with anybody because they feel like I would understand that I that I won't judge them. And I will, and I'm able to support the emotional need, the emotional support that they need sometimes. So I became what I wanted, you know what I wanted to find I became it for other people. Yeah, that's so powerful. Thank you. I see one more question here from Amy, who is saying that you all are doing amazing and important work. A big thank you with the exclamation point. Amy is a sexological somatic body worker, and is wondering if body work would be a good service to provide as building tools and possible therapy to survivors. Has this ever been like that. So like the somatics of it right. Yeah, I can say from us if we're, you know, we've had a relationship to periodically throughout our history with generative somatics and a former director of counseling and advocacy or organization would integrate you know somatic somatic work into counseling. So absolutely I think it's a really important tool. It's usually something that a lot of people don't have access to so I think you know healing tools to be able to allow people to build up their connection to their body and they're healing within their body, you know, particularly if the site of violence is a very important and generative somatics is an organization that I think is really good to look at for that kind of work. I'm a survivor who was able to access that kind of healing work, because one of their students was doing their I guess intern hours and needed a volunteer and they put it on Facebook and I was like me. And it was incredibly healing right especially when I happened I thought I had healed from that work right from from that trauma and so yeah I definitely elevate them. They're great resource that exists here in the Bay Area. Any other thoughts that folks have last minute thoughts or words they want to share with the audience before we start to wrap up. No. Okay. Well, I just want to come back to you know this this question around. Adriana or this you know the stuff that you had around like you became what you needed right and so oftentimes people are like, how can I help what can I do and honestly when someone comes to you and says I'm a survivor right regardless of its recent, or it's not, is to believe them, right is to believe them to, you know, tell them that it wasn't their fault, right and to ask them. How can I support you right you don't have to, you know, have all the resources or have all the answers So when you ask, how can I support you right as Alicia mentioned, having the Survivor Center framework of believing that survivors are the experts on their own lives and that can look different you know at that moment. Maybe they just want to vent and maybe they just want to cry or maybe they just want to sit in silence, but want company right. People like what I what is it that you need right now. And of course always support your local rape crisis center. You know, if, if you don't know where to find one you can check out rain rai and and that's the national one and they will connect you to your local rape crisis centers. I also want to mention that you know with this panel we are kicking off sexual assault awareness month there are a lot of events that are happening, both in person but also virtually. We're going to highlight all the events that are coming up for us before they're going to have a movie night they are going to have a healing writing group I believe right Alicia. And of course the annual rape walk. Join your local rape walk fundraise that you have the means right. Give whatever feels abundant to you two organizations right if that's $5 that's abundance if it's $500, it's $5,000 will take it right. And of course just want to really encourage folks to think about how you are showing up for survivors of sexual violence, not just in the month of April but every single day. Right because how, how we react when people this close to us really does have an impact on their healing process and so you know just think about how you can show up for folks who you know because I trust me you know someone, someone you love is a survivor and so just think about how you can show up for survivors of sexual violence. I want to pass it back on to Anisa for any last minute announcements or thoughts and again. Yeah. And I was just saying I also want to encourage folks to check out the resource list that was provided you know I know we talked about a very heavy topic today make sure you drink some water hydrate ground yourself and use those resources. And also that this is this will be archived in the San Francisco public libraries YouTube channel so share this as a resource with your colleagues with your peers. But yes, and he said me last minute thoughts or questions or announcements. Just a huge thank you to all of our panelists I told you they were all amazing human beings and Adriana special thanks for sharing your amazing story and your generosity and your love and what you give back to everybody else very amazing. And like Delta said the links are in the doc, and I will send a follow up with all of those links so you can come back. And just one last shout out for the virtual healing circle of childhood sexual assault survivors, hosted by Mayor memoir and it should be powerful just as powerful as this meant again, thank you partners, and we'll see you again library community. Thank you everyone. Thank you.