Christine Castillo of Verity - Sonoma County's Only Rape Crisis, Trauma and Healing Center
Our speaker for Thursday, June 6th was Christine Castillo of Verity – Sonoma County’s only rape crisis, trauma, and healing center. Christine explained that she is a survivor of incest and trafficking by her father and brother as a youngster. People did not talk about those problems in those days; it was a secret, which made it more difficult to recover from. Her experiences led her to a variety of problems, including obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorders, the inability to look at herself in the mirror, among other problems. She was recruited to work at Verity 12 years ago. Before that she worked alone and the decision to work in a group was difficult for her.
Verity started in 1984 and was known as Women Against Rape. They operated a 24-hour crisis hot line. The name was changed in the 1990’s and they started working with law enforcement, including receiving and handling referrals from law enforcement. They now have 24 full and part time employees. Christine’s priority is to treat Verity as a business so that it can continue its important work. Verity works through several departments. The Prevention Department spreads the word about these problems and Verity’s services. They go into schools, have bilingual radio announcements, and advertise in movie theaters. As a result of this work, the calls to Verity have increased greatly. The Counseling Department works with a variety of survivors, including people who have been trafficked, military sexual assault survivors, and many others. Sonoma County has a significant sexual trafficking problem. The county’s tourism industry brings traffickers and their ‘workers’ into the county. Traffickers sell underage youth to tourists out of hotels in the area. Verity receives calls from law enforcement and often takes charge of the survivors/escapees and puts them into safe accommodations, including Social Advocates for Youth and the Rose Shelter. Most of these kids just want to go home and Verity helps them do that.
Verity also has an Intervention Department. They work with law enforcement on the initial stages of rape and assault investigations. They help walk the victims through the process, including medical testing and discussions with law enforcement. Intervention has 9 full time staff positions. Verity also works in partnership with other agencies such as Legal Aid and Social Advocates. Christine also gave a shout out to Judy Coffey, who always helped Verity while with Kaiser! Verity is also active in the human trafficking task force and seeks to educate people about this secretive issue. She reminded us to remind people to watch their drinks while in bars because of the risk that the drink will be enhanced to help immobilize victims!
A great presentation, Christine, and thank you for coming and educating us to something that is not easy to see!!!
