Eric Gonzalez, the acting DA of Brooklyn made a public announcement regarding the formation of Campus Sexual Assault Response Initiative that is supposed to work proactively for administrators and college students for raising awareness related to on campus sexual assaults. It also supports and protects student survivors while fostering cooperation between law enforcement and schools.
Gonzalez stated that every student has a right to enjoy getting educated in an environment that is free of dating violence and campus sexual assault. He also said that they secure the honor of being the first DA’s office in NYC to carry out such an initiative while indulging a good amount of resources.
The execution of the initiative is supposed to involve the collaboration between the DA’s office and different campus officials to devise a well coordinated comeback to dating violence & campus sexual assaults and enhancing the investigative reporting while ensuring a comprehensive response. Reps from the DA’s office in collaboration with different community organizations would be speaking to freshmen at different campuses during the orientation in order to raise awareness. The office is also expected to offer different kinds of training programs for the staff members.
The task force devised for the initiative would be working for the connection of every one of the campus survivors to the Victim Services Unit’s comprehensive services. The access to this kind of services is supposed to enhance the process of investigating while cutting down any traumatic effects to the minimum level.
The DA office is also bound to designate one of their staff members as the focal person for the law enforcement and campus officials. The same staff member is also supposed to provide guidance regarding on campus sexual assault.
The initiative was launched by the office last week while hosting reps from 14 different higher education institutions to offer them a generic overview on the resources and overall vision of the program. The reps included title IX coordinators as well. They heard from the members of the DA’s office along with some of their partners including members of NYPD’s Special victims squad, social workers, reps of NYC alliance against sexual assault, NYC Health & Hospitals Corporation Sexual Assault Response & the NYC anti violence project.
