American Indian and Alaska Native women are raped at rates higher than any other race. Despite the alarming rates, sexual assault is still the most underreported crime. In response to this crisis occurring in Indian Country, tribal nations have been developing culturally appropriate programs and adapting existing response models to create appropriate responses to sexual assault. One such model is the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART). SART establishes a multidisciplinary team that collaborates to create a coordinated response to sexual assault. Presenters will share their experiences, challenges, successes and the importance of developing practices and protocols that are responsive to the immediate needs of adult victims of sexual assault victims and overall benefits to the criminal justice response.
Presenter(s):
Bonnie Clairmont (Ho-Chunk), citizen of the HoChunk Nation of Wisconsin, resides in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she is employed with the Tribal Law and Policy Institute as the Victim Advocacy Program Specialist. Prior to her employment with the Tribal Law and Policy Institute, Bonnie was Outreach/Client Services Coordinator for Sexual Offense Services of Ramsey County, a rape crisis center. While employed there, Bonnie provided leadership in the development of Sexual Assault Response Teams and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner programs and provided guidance with multidisciplinary sexual assault protocol development. She has worked more than twenty-five years advocating for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. She has dedicated much of her work to providing and improving services for victim/survivors of sexual assault, battering, and child sexual abuse, particularly those from American Indian communities. For four years she coordinated the Strengthening the Circle of Trust Conference, a conference focusing on sexual assault and exploitation perpetrated by American Indian spiritual leaders/medicine men. Bonnie co-edited a recently published book "Sharing Our Stories of Survival" an anthology of writing by Native Women who've experienced violence. Bonnie provided technical assistance to research conducted by Amnesty International USA that lead to the report, "Maze of Injustice: The failure to protect Indigenous Women from sexual violence in the USA." She and her partner Jim Clairmont have two children and five grandchildren. She has written the SART book for tribal communities
Gwenytha Parrish, RN MSN is the Lead Clinical Nurse at the Emergency Department of Tuba City Regional Health. She initiated the SANE/SART program there and has 5 years experience as the Program Coordinator. Through this experience, she gained the ability to conduct program requirements, which include Community Needs Assessment, Data Collection development, Protocol Development, and Coordination of SART. The process also included community education and awareness.