(Approved April 1997)

As a radical, feminist, grassroots organization we believe in the dignity of womenhood, the value of women's work, the voice of women as experts on our own lives and equality through the freedom of choice, and respecting diversity. We value emotional support as a means of empowering women to counteract their negative social conditions and oppression. We value working in groups as a means of power sharing. We are committed to anti-oppression work and increasing our awareness around issues of power with reference to sex, race, class, religion, ability, and sexual preference. We continually strive to be sensitive and responsive to issues of power imbalance in our work.

The resources of this organization are committed to:

a) developing emotional support, skill sharing and awareness materials for women in our community using survivor based knowledge and experience.
b) training women in our community in the use of these materials in various group or individual settings.
c) adapting and sharing of these materials to the needs of women in diverse ethnic, cultural, racial, and abled groups.
d) ensuring that we maintain our feminist political analysis of sexual violence and anti-oppression work as well as integrating these analyses into all the work we do.

Our strength is in our commitment to work collectively in decision making, lobbying and support. We challenge the very essence of a male defined political, economic and social system within which we are struggling to create an alternative, not simply find a place in the existing one. Each collective member is committed to acting in the best interest of the organization and the service users. We honour and respect individual differences, challenging oppressive aspects of both our own and other's value systems. As feminists we actively question other therapeutic practices in our community that appear abusive to women or that limit women's choices. In these situations we will assist women in challenging these oppressive structures or, when requested, advocate on her behalf by insisting that the appropriate changes are made to ensure accessibility to all women.

In our Statement of Objectives we make it clear that our overall objective is the eradication of male violence towards women. We are working towards this goal by providing support to women and children who have been victims of violence, be it physical, emotional, sexual - rape, incest, battering or harassment. We want survivors of violence to discover that they are not alone and that their victimization was not their fault. We want to give women the support and information that they request in order to deal with the effects of violence, to heal themselves and recover the power over their own lives that was taken away from them.

SASC recognizes that people of either sex can be abused by perpetrators of either sex, however we work from the perspective that the majority of abusers of violence are male, and the majority of survivors of sexual violence are women.

We have committed ourselves to supporting a woman in whatever choices she may make. This means that we are committed to accepting that only the woman can decide what she needs and where to get it. We will offer a number of forms of support such as individual counselling, telephone counselling, support groups, alternative action (postering, demonstrations), accompaniment to the police, hospital or courts and referral to others in the community. The decision as to which of these choices, if any, is suitable may only be made by the woman and we are committed to supporting women even when they make choices that we might not agree with.

We have tried to make our political philosophy explicit in order to indicate our support for a spectrum of action on male violence against women. Our primary focus is to provide support for women and children who have been directly affected by violence because we recognize that these incidents of violence do not exist in a social vacuum. We also wish to work on the larger problem - ultimately that of changing a sexist, racist, homophobic/heterosexist, ableist, and classist society.

By encouraging women and children to deal openly with violence rather than silently suffering fear and often guilt, we are challenging the "normalcy" of this violence.

We are always striving to involve ourselves in other types of work against male violence. This would include lobbying government for changes in relevant legislation, involvement in actions that make the public more aware for example speaking at schools, co-organizing events such as "Take Back the Night" marches and the December 6 vigil, and working with other women's organization on a local, provincial and national level, including sitting on community committees, boards, networks and working groups such as such as the Sexual Assault Network, the Regional Coordinating Committee to End Violence Against Women and the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres.

Our work at establishing a Basis of Solidarity was done in order to ensure that this Centre is a place where women become involved and contributed their abilities, experiences and skills within a context that ensures that their ideas would be heard. The atmosphere of respect, support and understanding that we offer to women and children who have experienced sexual violence should be no different from the respect, support and understanding we offer each other as collective members of the Sexual Assault Support Centre.