MECASA staff, with the support of the Maine Department of Corrections, authored the curriculum for the 2017 mandatory training for law enforcement on transgender survivors and sexual violence. With support from our partners at EqualityMaine, we wrote a curriculum that is both informative for those not familiar with people who are transgender and helpful for those who may already have a base knowledge. In addition to the significant technical assistance we provided to advocates serving survivors who are incarcerated, we also developed a set of posters for state-run correctional facilities. These posters provide information to people who are incarcerated on help and support advocates can provide, how to contact an advocate, and how to report an assault to the Department of Corrections. The posters are written at an appropriate literacy level to ensure the best reach among incarcerated survivors, and are part of MECASA’s ongoing efforts to make all of our outreach materials as accessible as possible. Additional Provider Support The core of our work is to support sexual assault service providers across the state to increase their capacity to do the hard work they do in supporting survivors. Most of that work is part of other MECASA programming, but two particular efforts are in their own category. MECASA staff spent the year finalizing the centralized, live-answer, statewide crisis and support line. In February 2017, providers consolidated the crisis and support line into one answering service for all calls across the state. In August, two daytime advocates began providing live-answer to support line callers during business hours. While local centers still have staff or volunteers ready to handle accompaniments to hospitals or to law enforcement, centralized coverage means that local staff have more time to focus on other work with survivors. As one Client Services Manager said, “We so appreciate the extra layers of support the daytime advocates provide to victims and survivors. They give us time to attend to our work beyond answering the hotline.” Plans are now underway to add text and chat capabilities to the support daytime advocates provide. These changes ensure that callers to the support line get services that are supportive, speedy and appropriate—and still stay connected to local support if they need it. “We so appreicate the extra layers of support the daytime advocates provide to victims and survivors. They give us time to attend to our work beyond answering the hotline.” -Client Services Manager 10
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