Community Awareness and Barriers to Service Access for Sexual Violence Survivors: A Community Needs Assessment

Background and Purpose: The issue of sexual violence is a pervasive social and public health issue with immediate and lasting negative impacts on the health, mental health, and economic outcomes for individual survivors, their families, and communities (Peterson, et al., 2017). In the U.S., 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men will experience sexual violence in their lifetime (Breiding, et al., 2014), but less than half of survivors seek formal services following an assault (Campbell et al., 2001, Ullman & Filipas, 2001). Organizations dedicated to eradicating sexual violence are often limited in providing outreach to the broader community and practical support to survivors when accessing services (Ullman & Townsend, 2007). Because survivors are far less likely to initiate contact with an organization for services directly (O’Sullivan & Carlton, 2001), outreach and awareness-building with community members may be crucial in reaching current or future survivors and may help organizations target outreach depending on particular needs of the community. Thus, the purpose of this research is to present findings from a community needs assessment which sought to understand: How aware are community members regarding existing services for sexual violence and what do they perceive as barriers for survivors in accessing services?

Methods: This study utilized a convenience sample to seek the perspectives of community members in one medium-sized city in the upper Midwest regarding services for sexual violence survivors through a needs assessment survey. In collaboration with agency staff, open and close-ended survey questions were developed and pilot tested with volunteer advocates and service providers (n=15).  Participants were recruited with flyers at local businesses, schools, clinics, community events, and community spaces in underserved areas of the city, and on social media. Following informed consent, participants (N=376) responded to questions regarding awareness of existing sexual violence services, perceived barriers for survivors in accessing services, ideas about how to make services more accessible to survivors, and self-described demographic information. Data analyses included descriptive statistics and logistic regression.

Results: Controlling for significant demographic variables, significant results of the logistic regression analyses show survivors (OR=6.2, CI=3.3-12.1 p<.001) and service providers (OR=9.0, CI=1.8-164.0, p<.05) were more likely to be aware of the organization and services offered, but that males (OR=0.1, CI=1.4-42.1, p<.001) were less likely. Perceived barriers to service access included: office location by survivors (OR=1.9, CI=1.1-3.4, p<.05) and youth (OR=3.4, CI=1.1-10.8, p<.05); childcare by service providers (OR=3.3, CI=1.8-6.5, p<.001); and English as the primary language by educators (OR=1.9, CI=1.1-3.6, p<.05). Males and business owners were significantly less likely to perceive childcare as a barrier for survivor access to services.

Implications: Results suggest that the role that participants identify with in the community significantly predicted their awareness and perception of barriers in service access for sexual violence survivors. This suggests a need for additional research to evaluate the effectiveness of targeted outreach to the community, to help practitioners in promoting awareness and community support for survivors, and to further understand the practical support most crucial to survivors in accessing services for sexual violence.