The Austin/TravisCounty Sexual Assault Response and Resource Team (A/TC SARRT) is a community wide group of interdisciplinary partners and survivors tasked with the local response to adult sexual assault with a shared mission of ongoing collaboration, training and coordination among the agencies charged with responding to these types of crimes. This collaborative approach strengthens the entire system, ultimately providing better support for survivors.
The A/TC SARRT was initially formed in 1992 as a collaborative, multidisciplinary process to effectively and comprehensively respond to sexual assault cases by using the feedback received from each discipline to help inform the decisions and actions of others. Agencies realize the widespread impact of trauma and understand the need to identify potential paths for recovery; recognize the trauma reactions in victims’ families, staff, and others involved with the system; respond by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practice; and seek to actively resist re-traumatization. While A/TC SARRT has evolved and expanded over the years, the mission-focused work continues.
In 2022, the Austin Police Department’s (APD) Collaborative Sex Crimes Response Model (CSCRM) project, in collaboration with the City of Austin and the A/TC SARRT, was initiated to review and provide community and other feedback and recommendations to APD and City of Austin personnel on policies, procedures, processes, and training for APD sexual assault investigations and investigators. Execution and implementation of the CSCRM project scope involves the engagement of a multidisciplinary team comprised of over 40 individuals from APD, A/TC SARRT, subject matter experts, and local agency and non-profit partners. The atxbelieves website was created out of this collaborative project as a way to provide community resources.
