Tillamook County proclaims April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month; local advocacy group outlines plan to restore SANE services

The Tillamook County Board of Commissioners on April 9 unanimously adopted a proclamation declaring April 2025 as Sexual Assault Awareness Month and heard from Tides of Change about a plan to restore local sexual-assault forensic exams.

Valerie Bundy, executive director of the nonprofit Tides of Change, told commissioners Tillamook County has not been able to provide forensic exams to sexual-assault survivors locally “since before the pandemic.” She said survivors seeking evidence collection to support prosecution currently must travel out of the county for exams, which “can take hours depending on how bad the assault was, and then drive back.” Bundy added, verbatim, “that is 10, 17 hours once we knew it took for someone to go and come back, so that's not acceptable.”

Bundy outlined a plan to establish local SANE services in 2025, saying three nurses have completed most training components and the program will hire a full-time Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner. She said Adventist Health is providing exam space outside the emergency department and that the program expects to start with adults (15 years and older); exams for younger children involve different procedures and are handled by the local child advocacy center.

Bundy described the program’s primary funding source as an Office for Victims of Crime grant: “It is $500,000 for 3 years. We received that in 2022. We were one of six in the U.S. that were awarded that year,” she said, and added that, among the cohort, Tillamook County was the only awardee serving a truly rural area. Bundy said the award brought technical assistance to help stand up the program.

Commissioners praised Tides of Change for pursuing local SANE capacity and for the grant award. The board read and adopted a resolution proclaiming April 2025 as Sexual Assault Awareness Month; the proclamation text, read into the record, affirms support for survivors, urges community prevention efforts and names the county’s intent to observe the month. A motion to adopt the proclamation was seconded and passed on a voice vote; the clerk said “Aye” and the chair declared the motion carried.

Tides of Change already provides advocacy, counseling and support groups, Bundy said, and will aim to provide “wraparound” services including advocacy alongside forensic exams. Bundy said the program will not be 24/7 at first but hopes to expand hours over time and will return to the board with updates once services are operational.

The board said it will distribute the adopted proclamation to Tides of Change and the public record.