Persistence, teamwork brings back SART

PALMER — When she heard about the latest attempt to form a Sexual Assault Response Team in Mat-Su, Pat Smith said she was hesitant.

“I was the world’s biggest skeptic,” she said. “There have been so many attempts since 2005 to get this started.”

But, she said, Bert Cottle at the city of Wasilla has proven her wrong. Smith directs the Family Birthing Center at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. And now she’s also supervises the SART program there. She presided over a gathering May 8 recognizing everyone who helped to make it happen.

“It’s not about me, it’s about how we got here,” he said in accepting the gifts. “I had to have a lot of help, believe me.”

He said that the effort started in a staff meeting at the city of Wasilla. Police chief Gene Belden said that victims of sexual assault had to be driven to Anchorage. The effort took cops off the streets but, more urgently, it exacerbated a terrible situation, in Cottle’s words it “re-victimized” the victims and many of them were walking away instead of going through the ordeal.

Cottle said his boss, Mayor Verne Rupright, told him to fix it. That was essentially all the direction he got — find a way to fix it.

So he started talking to politicians. It’s a tough sell, Cottle said.

“You don’t get your name on a building for funding SART,” he said.

But slowly he got everyone on board. The mayors of Wasilla, Palmer, Houston and the Mat-Su Borough signed off on the effort. The Legislature chipped in $145,000 in start-up costs. The Mat-Su Borough chipped in, as did the cities. Rep. Lynn Gattis got them $100,000.

Cottle also rounded up support from local charities including MY House, The Children’s Place, United Way Mat-Su and Alaska Family Services.

That last group, Alaska Family Services, serves as an administrator. The money for the program flows through the various government bodies to AKFS. Oh, and there had to be some weird financial maneuvering. The borough, for instance, has to give its contribution to Wasilla in the form of a grant for municipal planning, of all things, with the understanding that Wasilla will divert the money it offsets from the planning department to the SART team.

“I didn’t realize it was going to be this complicated,” Cottle said.

He recalled one particularly forceful bit of testimony before the borough assembly after it became clear the state was going to help fund the program.

Smith said that the program already has worked on at least six cases.

“It may seem like a small amount but if you are a victim, that’s the most important case,” she said.

And the borough assembly has once again chipped in funding for the program. Even that generally fiscally conservative body had nothing but great things to say about that particular budget appropriation.

Smith said she was pleased the entire community sees value in the SART program.

“This is truly a huge thank-you to the community for stepping up and recognizing that sexual assault and interpersonal violence is not only a community issue but a public health issue.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.