Call or Text (216) 619-6192 or (440) 423-2020 or chat online, any time.
#SurvivorLoveLetter is a social media campaign where survivors and their allies flood the internet with powerful messages of love and support for survivors of sexual violence. This year, Cleveland Rape Crisis Center staff created colorful messages to empower and lift up survivors in our community.
Take a look at our messages below, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to see more.
January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month
Cleveland Rape Crisis Center is proud to partner and participate in a variety of in-person and virtual events during the month of January 2020. Join us at one of these events, and learn what you can do to help spread awareness about the issue of Human Trafficking in our community.
Saturday, January 18, 2020, 10-11 am Stop Human Trafficking Organized by Sigma Gamma Rho Inc., in partnership with Cleveland Rape Crisis Center Location: Fatima Family Center 6600 Lexington Avenue, Cleveland OH 44103
Wednesday, January 22, 2020, 6-9pm Ambassador Training Workshop Location: Cleveland Rape Crisis Center Main Office The Halle Building, 1228 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200, Cleveland, OH 44115
Wednesday, January 29, 2020, 4-6pm Human Trafficking Awareness Month Event Organized by The Collaborative to End Human Trafficking, in partnership with Regional Transit Authority (RTA) Location: Stokes-Windermere Station, 14232 Euclid Avenue, East Cleveland
Cleveland Rape Crisis Center provides specialized victim assistance, counseling, case management, professional training, and a 24-hour hotline to survivors of sex trafficking in Northeast Ohio.
More than 70 young men from various Cleveland Metropolitan School District schools attended Forward: Empowering Young Men, an event for young men in grades 9-12.
Students learned about healthy relationships, healthy masculinity, and what it means to be a leader.
Please contact your elected officials to support survivors of rape and sexual abuse in our community.
Cleveland Rape Crisis Center is seeking funding to support its core services through the Cuyahoga County budget process.
As the only organization providing comprehensive healing services for survivors of rape and sexual abuse in our community, Cleveland Rape Crisis Center’s services are more in demand than ever before.
Please send an email to your Cuyahoga County Council member and Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish today, asking them to support Cleveland Rape Crisis Center.
Cleveland Rape Crisis Center is important to Cuyahoga County residents. They provide critical services to victims during their time of greatest need. Please support their mission and work.
Please help sustain the services of Cleveland Rape Crisis Center in Cuyahoga County. Far too many women, children and men in our community need their help.
Survivors of rape and sexual abuse need your help! Please support the mission and work of Cleveland Rape Crisis Center to ensure that survivors in Cuyahoga County can continue to access the healing services they need.
Cleveland Rape Crisis Center helped me when I needed it the most. Please prioritize support for Cleveland Rape Crisis Center so that others may receive their services as well.
Sample Social Media Posts
Please fund Cleveland Rape Crisis Center’s critical services for survivors of rape and sexual abuse in our community.
Far too many women, children and men in our community need help from Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. Please help sustain their services in Cuyahoga County.
Please support the work of Cleveland Rape Crisis Center so that survivors of rape and sexual abuse in our community can access the healing services they need.
CLEVELAND — On Oct. 29, 2009, Cleveland police arrived at 12205 Seymour Avenue to serve an arrest warrant on Anthony Sowell. It was a list of charges that would soon grow. Sowell wasn’t home, but inside the home police found the remains of two decomposing bodies. The next day they found an additional three. The number would eventually grow to 11.
“Tonia Carmichael, Nancy Cobbs, Tishana Culver, Crystal Dozier, Telacia Fortson, Amelda Hunter, Leshanda Long, Michelle Mason, Kim Yvette Smith, Diane Turner, and Janice Webb were not just cases, victims or names, they were mothers, daughters, sisters and cousins,” Sondra Miller, President & CEO of Cleveland’s Rape Crisis Center, wrote in remembrance of the Imperial Avenue victims. “They left behind families and friends who loved them—who still mourn them.”
Miller, reflecting on this 10th anniversary, said she hopes this serves as a reminder that there were promises made to the community when the city convened the Special Commission on Missing Persons and Sex Crimes Investigations to make recommendations about how to improve response in the hopes that a tragedy like this would never happen again.
“After some initial momentum, the efforts of these groups and their related recommendations were largely forgotten,” she wrote. “Public attention moved to other areas of concern. The city failed to dedicate additional resources to sex crimes investigations, and rape survivors continue to face an inadequate response when they report crimes.”
“This is especially concerning because we know that women and children are the most vulnerable to rape and sexual abuse, as are people of color, those who live in poverty and those who suffer from addiction or mental illness. These same factors seem to make it more likely for our criminal justice system to re-victimize survivors by not believing them, not fully investigating their cases and not helping them find a path to healing and justice.”
Miller shared her thoughts with Cleveland City Council’s Safety Committee last week while appearing to speak on behalf of a grant the city received that will add a second full-time employee from the rape crisis center to work with police.
A decade after Cleveland’s Imperial Avenue tragedy, it’s not too late to enact change.
When tragedy happens, it can be hard to find hope in the midst of grief, anger, loss and suffering. Sometimes, the best we can hope for is to learn from the past to prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future.
Ten years ago, on October 29, 2009, the world’s eyes turned to Cleveland with the discovery of 11 murdered women, all who died by the hands of convicted rapist Anthony Sowell. This was not the first time the Cleveland Division of Police learned of Sowell’s brutality. Long before that day, they had received multiple reports from survivors that he had raped them. Because the survivors weren’t believed, and their cases did not receive thorough investigations, this predator was left free to harm and kill others.
Tonia Carmichael, Nancy Cobbs, Tishana Culver, Crystal Dozier, Telacia Fortson, Amelda Hunter, Leshanda Long, Michelle Mason, Kim Yvette Smith, Diane Turner, and Janice Webb were not just cases, victims or names. They were mothers, daughters, sisters and cousins. They left behind families and friends who loved them – who still mourn them.
In the aftermath of unthinkable crimes, the City of Cleveland convened the Special Commission on Missing Persons and Sex Crimes Investigations to make recommendations about how to improve response. Further, an external audit by the Police Executive Research Forum produced a report that included 13 recommendations related to the Division’s Sex Crimes & Child Abuse Unit. Each effort was rooted in hope that a catastrophe like this would never happen again.
Yet, after some initial momentum the efforts of these groups and their related recommendations were largely forgotten. Public attention moved to other areas of concern. The City failed to dedicate additional resources to sex crimes investigations, and rape survivors continue to face an inadequate response when they report crimes.
This is especially concerning because we know that women and children are the most vulnerable to rape and sexual abuse, as are people of color, those who live in poverty and those who suffer from addiction or mental illness. These same factors seem to make it more likely for our criminal justice system to re-victimize survivors by not believing them, not fully investigating their cases and not helping them find a path to healing and justice.
A special series in The Plain Dealer last month, Case Closed, profoundly chronicled the systemic failures of our criminal justice system. When Sandi Fedor, a grandmother who was raped by a serial sex offender, reported to the Cleveland Division of Police, her case was not investigated adequately; the perpetrator remained free and he raped yet another woman.
Ms. Fedor’s experiences – and the experiences of countless other survivors – demonstrate that we have not learned or acted enough to prevent violence, similar to the Imperial Avenue tragedy, from happening again in our community.
We cannot go back to erase the past or the pain and suffering of any of the Imperial Avenue victims or their families and neighbors, but we can honor each of them by enacting meaningful change that prevents others from being harmed in the future.
We must believe survivors when they come forward. We must ensure that the professionals who investigate their cases have the resources they need to do their jobs well. And, we must hold every offender accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Doing so reduces the chance that another woman, man or child will be harmed.
Now is the time for us to acknowledge that we can – and must – do better, commit the resources required and enact the radical change needed in our criminal justice system.
We have an opportunity every day to continuously improve. At Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, we are ready to collaborate to find solutions.
Let’s work together now. To honor the memory of those we have lost. To help survivors find the healing and justice they deserve. And to prevent similar disaster from striking our community ever again.
We Remember.
Sondra Miller President & CEO Cleveland Rape Crisis Center
# # #
About Cleveland Rape Crisis Center
The mission of Cleveland Rape Crisis Center is to support survivors of rape and sexual abuse, promote healing and prevention, and advocate for social change. In 2018, the Center provided counseling, advocacy and crisis intervention services to 10,000 rape and sexual abuse survivors and reached 54,000 people through its prevention, education and training programs in Cuyahoga, Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake counties.
Call or text (216) 619-6192 or (440) 423-2020 or chat online.
By Sondra Miller, President & CEO, Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, Guest Columnist, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND — I believe you.
These three simple words can transform the experiences of a rape survivor.
I believe you.
This simple statement has the ability to negate the shame and self-doubt that far too many survivors face when reporting their rape.
I believe you.
When heard, this chorus can redirect a rape survivor’s journey of recovery – from one of fear and humiliation to one of healing.
I believe you.
When sexual assault investigations start with these three words, survivors begin to find justice and offenders are more likely to be held accountable.
These words are powerful. They are free. They are the start of a radical change that is needed within the systems and agencies that exist to support rape survivors in our communities, including at the Cleveland Division of Police.
Believing survivors is the bedrock of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. No matter what one’s life circumstances may be or how long ago a survivor was hurt, we believe you.
The Plain Dealer’s “Case Closed” series, written by Rachel Dissell and Andrea Simakis, was a powerful, firsthand account of what happens in the absence of belief. This sequence documented the journey of Sandi Fedor, a grandmother who survived rape, as she navigated our criminal justice system. Sandi’s incredible courage to share her story is commendable.
While we know that Sandi’s experiences are hers alone, we also know that there are familiar themes and patterns in her story. She turned to law enforcement for help at one of the most vulnerable times in her life. In return, she was ignored. Her experiences were minimized. Sandi was not believed.
These patterns are not isolated to Cleveland. They play out every single day and affect far too many victims in our region and across our nation. What is unique is our local community’s level of awareness of these systemic problems and the lack of change that has transpired.
Nearly a decade ago, the world turned its eyes to Cleveland when police discovered 11 bodies on Imperial Avenue. These women were brutally murdered by Anthony Sowell, a convicted sex offender. Some of these attacks could have been prevented. However, our unwillingness to believe survivors resulted in a sex offender going unchecked and more women being raped and murdered.
We must improve.
We have the answers. In fact, we have had them for a decade. In 2010, a special commission assembled by Mayor Frank Jackson delivered recommendations for improvements. An external agency audited staffing levels in the Sex Crimes & Child Abuse Unit and recommended increases. Yet, nearly 10 years later, only a handful of these best practices have been implemented. This is not acceptable.
The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center urges our city’s leaders to change that. Specifically, we call for the prioritization of the following improvements:
1. Increase staffing levels in the Sex Crimes &Child Abuse Unit.
2. Update policies and procedures to ensure survivors are believed and investigations are timely and thorough.
3. Ensure adequate training for all responding officers, investigators and supervisors.
4. Implement a case management system to track all police reports.
5. Commit to continuous improvement through the use of independent audits and case reviews.
To our city’s leaders: When you said any lapse in investigating sex crimes and child abuse cases was “egregious,” I believed you. When you said, “Sexual assault cases remain a high priority within the Division of Police,” I believed you. However, your actions have not supported your words and your lack of urgency has led to more people being hurt.
Now is the time to invest in improvements for survivors. The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center welcomes the city’s partnership in improving our collective response. When we work together, meaningful change can happen. I believe that.
Sondra Miller is president and CEO of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center receives modest federal funding in support of its partnership with the Cleveland Division of Police to provide services for survivors of rape and sexual abuse.
