Do you need help?

WA State Dept of Commerce: Are you a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, or other crime? Do you know someone who is a victim of a crime? The Office of Crime Victims Advocacy Resource Guide can help you to locate a non-emergency victim service provider in Washington State. Each service provider offers a variety of services including: crisis intervention, advocacy, support groups, medical and mental health care, transitional housing, and emergency shelter. Additionally, some service providers may focus on domestic violence or sexual assault. Click here for more Info on Resources and Legislation for 2021.

Stopping Serial Rape with Data: Representative Tina Orwall and Representative Gina Mosbrucker are continue to push forward to support survivors in what Mosbrucker calls the “next, most important recommendation,” House Bill 1109. Read about it here.

Leah Griffin, Washington State activist pursuing legislature around the untested rape kits, speaks to Seattle Magazine about her advocacy work. Read about Leah Griffin’s efforts here.

Check out Leah's Griffin’s episode!

My name is Leah. I currently work as a school librarian, and so I know the
importance of telling stories in creating real change.

The work Truth in the Shadow has done over the years displays the power of storytelling, and I ran for office of State Representative in the 34th district in 2022 because I want to tell the stories of my neighbors at the state level to create evidence-based solutions to the problems we face. 

My story is that in 2014, I was raped by a man in my neighborhood and
entered into a series of broken systems. I encountered a broken justice, public safety, and healthcare system. Over the past eight years, I’ve passed multiple laws to reform systems which failed me. I lead the Democratic Party on the Approve R90 campaign to ensure access to high quality, inclusive sexual health education. I worked on the coalition behind the Keep Our Care Act to provide oversight to religiously affiliated hospital mergers which seek to deny abortion and trans healthcare. While representing survivors on the Sexual
Assault Forensic Examination (SAFE) Task Force, I worked across the aisle and with a variety of stakeholders to pass bills that require rape kits to be tested, tracked, and stored. By the end of this year, the entire 10,000 rape kit backlog will be tested.

We redefined rape in the 3rd degree to hold more rapists accountable and required training in trauma informed interviewing
techniques for police investigators, and developed new protocols for hospitals.

I also worked with Senator Murray and her staff on the Survivors’ Access to Supportive Care Act to increase access to sexual assault nurse examiners in hospitals nationwide. In March of 2022, my federal law was passed, allocating $150 million to train sexual assault nurse examiners. 

I’ve worked to change the ending of my story and I’m running because I want my
neighbors to have that experience as well. One of the biggest priorities within
my campaign is public safety, and Truth in the Shadow has helped to tell the stories
of some of the most drastic failures of our public safety system when it comes
to the treatment and care of survivors. Our current approach to public safety
both fails to hold perpetrators of crime accountable and fails to help victims
of crime. I had to plead with the police and other authorities to even
investigate my assault.

In the legislature, I will build off my and many others’ works to create a more modern, effective criminal justice and public safety system which centers accountability and rehabilitation and combats the systemic racism within its institutions. For imprisonment to be effective, it must return people to the community who are better than when they went in. That means it must provide access to behavioral health and job training services, as well as access to social support systems. Far too often, survivors of crimes are lost in the process and lack the support they need. I want to create systems that provide survivors with access to emotional and supportive healing so that they can move past their experience and be made whole. Everyone across our state deserves access to behavioral healthcare and a criminal justice system which works to better our communities and support survivors. 

End the Backlog is an advocacy site that is constantly updating the backlog progress, as well as keeping us informed of the Legislative acts in motion pertaining to survivors, the funding around the rape kits per state, and general information on the Accountability project. Visit their website here.

RAINN: A national network dedicated to the survivors of sexual violence and their loved ones.

More Links:

Grays Harbor Beyond Survival (web)

Background Checks with OVC and OVW Federal Funds (web)
DSHS Domestic Violence Referral (web)
StrongHearts Native Helpline (web)
National Child Traumatic Stress Network: Resources for Parents and Caregivers on Child & Youth  Trauma (web)
Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs (web)
Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (web)
Children’s Advocacy Centers of Washington (web)
Women’s Spirit Coalition – MMIW