CFCR COMMUNITY CONNECT – January 2025
Welcome to CFCR Community Connect – where we help to connect you with local community organizations in Saskatoon.
Saskatoon Sexual Assault & Information Centre is the Community Connect feature for the month of January 2025!
The Saskatoon Sexual Assault & Information Centre is a Saskatoon based, non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to providing a leadership role in responding to sexualized violence in the community. Services are available to those affected by all forms of sexualized violence/abuse, their families, the general public, and other support/service providers. Our mission is to be the primary provider of community leadership in addressing sexual violence through providing counselling and services to survivors of sexualized violence as well as education and prevention services to the Saskatoon and surrounding area.
What types of programs or activities do you offer? What’s your most successful program?
Core service areas include the following:
- Free, confidential, Individual and group counselling for survivors of sexual violence
- 24-hour Crisis Line
- Survivor/Victim Assistance and Court Accompaniment
- Public education prevention programming and Information services
Are there specific demographics of communities you primarily serve?
All genders, races, religions, sexualities, and romantic orientations are welcome at SSAIC. For the safety of our clientele, we do not serve perpetrators of sexualized or intimate partner violence. We serve:
- Anyone 12 years of age or older who has experienced sexualized violence (abuse, assault, or harassment), regardless of when the violence occurred
- Parents of survivors of sexualized violence
- Individuals who have been affected by the sexualized violence of family, friends, and loved ones
How have you seen your organization’s work make a difference? Can you share any success stories or provide examples of positive outcomes directly impacted by your organization?
SSAIC makes a difference for people on a daily basis. Our counselling services provided services to over 800 clients in 2023-2024. Our education and outreach team presented over 100 hours of Sexualized Violence Prevention Education reaching 3,541 community members, including our Community Based Sexualized Violence Prevention Youth Presentations, which reached 723 youths between the ages of 6 and 17 in 2023-2024.
Do you collaborate with other non-profits, agencies, or businesses to provide programs or resources? How do these collaborations enhance the effectiveness of your programs?
We have collaborated with agencies in the past. We do share information about other organizations with our clients that help with their healing. We offer education to other community based organizations.
What are any challenges or obstacles your organization has faced? How were they overcome?
A challenge we are currently facing is the education bill that the government enacted where 3rd party sexual health educators are not allowed in schools to teach important programming. SSAIC has 2 school based programs that teach about child sexual abuse prevention that is currently not allowed to be taught in schools. We have a grade 4 & grade 8 program. We have been doing the grade 4 program for almost 19 years within all schools in Saskatoon and area.
We have pivoted and once again offered our Grade 8 program “No is a Full Sentence” in the fall of 2024, and we are currently offering the grade 4 program “I’m the Boss of Me” in the community. Additionally, we have a caregiver informational that runs in tandem with our youth presentations.
We have had wonderful community support, however, we have not reached as many students as we could have if we were allowed to present in schools. In 2022-2023, the last time we were permitted in schools, we were able to reach 5020 grade 4 and grade 8 students. We will continue to move forward with community sessions, as well as continuing to try and get back into schools to present this important and potentially life saving information to students.
Do you have a long-term vision or dream for your organization?
One of our long term goals is to grow our education and outreach department. We feel that education is a very important piece to the prevention of sexualized violence.
How can the community help your organization reach its goals?
The community can help by supporting SSAIC in a variety of ways. They can support our programs monetarily. They can follow us on all of our social media platforms and share our content. They can take the training that we offer. They can ask questions and share correct and important information about sexualized violence.
What volunteer opportunities are there within your organization? How can individuals or groups get involved and support your organization through volunteering?
SSAIC offers unique volunteer opportunities. Our Volunteer Application Form can be found on our website.
- SSAIC’s Board of Directors is a group of passionate, talented individuals who work to set the strategic priorities of the agency. Our board is made up of knowledgeable and compassionate individuals who are committed to serving the survivors of sexualized violence in our community. They help guide our work and push the agency forward in the most exemplary way.
- SSAIC offers two volunteering opportunities with our community based presentations of “I’m the Boss of Me” developed for Grade 4 students and “No is a Full Sentence” developed for Grade 8 students. Originally created in partnership with Saskatoon Public Schools and Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools, both programs used to be delivered in classrooms in the Saskatoon and area and are aligned with the Saskatchewan Health Curriculum. We now offer these Sexualized Violence Prevention Programs in the community at various public libraries for youth and their caregivers. Each year, we are on the search for skilled volunteers who love children and youth and are passionate about ending sexualized violence in our community to facilitate our programs.
What about fundraising or donating opportunities?
There are multiple ways to support SSAIC with donations:
Online: SSAIC Website, Paypal Giving Fund Canada, and Canada Helps
In-Person: you can donate to us with cash or cheque at the front desk of our office (201 – 506 25th Street East)
At SARCAN: when you choose to recycle your bottles and cans with SARCAN at any location across Saskatchewan, you can donate those funds directly to SSAIC using the code “I believe you”.
Shop our Merchandise: SSAIC has survivor-themed merchandise for you to sport around your community – grab a mug to enjoy your cup of tea, or a super soft t-shirt to spread the word! 100% of the proceeds go towards providing direct services to survivors. Shop here!
We will also be doing a 50/50 draw in 2025! More information can be found on our website.
What is something that you wish more people knew about your organization?
That we are a small, committed, passionate group of professionals that want to create change around the issues of sexualized violence in our communities.
Also that we have an education and outreach program that offers many different workshops and education opportunities.
2025 is SSAIC’s 50th Anniversary. We will be having a celebration in May. It is very important to talk about where we started to where SSAIC is now and the continued need of our services.
Explore below…
