More Sexual Assault Survivors In Iowa Have Access To Resources
Iowa Public Radio News | By Kassidy Arena
Published October 2, 2020 at 5:44 PM CDT
Survivors of sexual assault in Iowa now have more civil legal resources. An organization has now expanded its reach to a population beyond just students.
Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault (Iowa CASA) received a grant that allows the organization to assist more survivors in the state. Before earning the funding, Iowa CASA was only able to provide civil legal services to students. Executive director Beth Barnhill said the extra funds allow Iowa CASA to help more survivors now.
“We are pleased about them because we had to turn away clients that we knew needed help, but they didn't fit under what we were allowed to do," Barnhill said.
She said she specifically asked for this flexibility after having to turn away some survivors because they were not students.
“We felt like we needed to expand what we can do in order to meet the needs of the survivors who call us so we asked that the scope be enlarged," Barnhill said.
With the new grant, Iowa CASA will still be able to provide the same services as before, like bilingual resources, but it now applies to a larger population of survivors of all ages and almost all situations.
