Those who have been victimized by sexual abuse have a “safe place” on campus to turn to when they need it.

The Sexual Abuse Free Environment Place, or better known as The S.A.F.E. Place, is a rape prevention program and sexual violence resource center for students, staff and faculty of SF State.

The program is the first step in the aftermath of a violent sexual crime. Workers and volunteers help the victim by providing them with the necessary resources-whether it is housing, treatment or a referral to a counselor.

In 2004 the program had 37 reported incidents, including rape, forcible sodomy, sexual harrasment, stalking, battering, fondling and hate crimes. More than 80 percent of the victims were women.

“I find that mostly women come to us for help, but there are boys who come for help too,” said Nina Jo Smith, coordinator and co-founder of The S.A.F.E. Place.

The idea to have a campus-based program for victims of sexual crimes began in the ‘80s, when Smith was teaching a self-defense class on campus. Many of her students would turn to her for advice about sexual violence because students were not being properly informed of resources.

“There were all of these services and students didn’t know how to find them,” said Smith.

Fortunately, around the same time Smith and her colleagues were trying to start an on-campus prevention center, the California legislature passed an unfunded mandate, stating that all schools must have a sexual assault policy and allow access to all students.

Meaning that the school had to provide the students with services, but had to tap into its own resources to pay for it.

They were able to get funding from student affairs and Associated Students Inc., and the center opened in January of 1992.

“I had no idea that we [had] something like this on campus,” said Jami Shaheen, 20, a junior kinesiology major. “I think it is definitely something that can be beneficial.”

When they aren’t treating victims, Smith and her staff of student assistants and volunteers are planning rape and sexual violent prevention events. They do everything from plays like the Vagina Monologues and The Laramie Project, to holding prevention forums.

“90 percent of what we do is prevention,” said Smith.

The program also hopes to do some work with Katrina victims. Smith hasnt chosen a focus yet, but hopes to help students if they transfer to SF State.

“Often times violence and sexual violence tend to increase during a disaster,” said Smith. “Plus, we don’t only focus on sexual crimes, we are very community built.”

Smith also co-teaches a class at SF State called Counseling 606, Intro to Peer Counseling Skills, which helps individual students learn listening, responding, interpretation, decision-making, program development, implementation, and evaluation skills. The class is designed to teach students the fundamentals they need to assist with the prevention of sexual crimes.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and The S.A.F.E. Place plans to host the Clothesline Project (CLP). The CLP program was started in 1990 in Cape Cod, Massachusettes to address the issue of violence against women. Women that have been affected by violence express their emotions by decorating a shirt. They then hang the shirt on a publically-viewed clothesline as a declaration against the problem of aggression towards women.

“The Clothesline Project is a pretty intense and emotional art display,” said Smith.

The CLP Web site explains the projects as a “process of designing a shirt that gives each woman a new voice with which to expose an often horrific and unspeakable experience that has dramatically altered the course of her life. Participating in this project provides a powerful step towards helping a survivor break through the shroud of silence that has surrounded her experience.”

“It seems that so many people don’t have anywhere to turn after they have been victimized,” said Shaheen. “The S.A.F.E. Place can be their safe place.”

The S.A.F.E. Place is located in the Student Services Building, room 205. It is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and has a 24-hour crisis line - (415) 647-RAPE.