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Del Norte SART team awarded $500,000 federal grant; county now has 24-hour SART nursing on call
Summary
City officials and public-safety leaders on Dec. 2 highlighted a recent $500,000 grant that helped restore a full Sexual Assault Response Team, including 24-hour SART nursing and a mobile forensic/evidence capability. The award funded a mobile pantry-style expansion of local SART services and reduced evidence-kit costs, officials said.
Chief Griffin and others at the Dec. 2 Crescent City Council meeting highlighted a recent federal award and local coordination that restored comprehensive Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) services to Del Norte County.
Chief Griffin said the county received a grant worth $500,000 — “we were only one of four grants in the United States,” he said — and credited local SART members and partner agencies with rebuilding 24-hour SART nursing availability and regular SART coordination meetings. He said returning local capacity also reduced the cost of evidence kits “from $1,800 sometimes for start kits … down to several hundred dollars,” and emphasized the benefit to survivors of sexual assault and their families.
Amanda LeBlanc, identified in the meeting as representing the North Coast Crisis Team, said the grant will be used to expand services, including ongoing SART nurse education, recruiting new SART nurses and establishing a forensic interview site in Del Norte County. “We look forward to using the grant money that we got to expand services,” she said.
Speakers at the council meeting credited broad local coordination — law enforcement, the district attorney’s office, tribal partners, probation, victim-witness advocates and Sutter Coast Hospital — for driving the program’s restoration. Chief Griffin said the revived local capacity both improves victim services and reduced expense to residents, while Amanda and Alyssa (identified in the event as a SART team member and former sergeant) described continuing work to sustain training and operations.
The council’s recognition was ceremonial; no formal council action tied to the grant was recorded in the meeting minutes. Staff did not provide a program budget breakdown at the meeting beyond the $500,000 award and the claim that only 63 cents remained in a separate, unrelated grant closeout discussed later in the agenda.
The city and county agencies involved said they will return to the council with updates as the grant-funded work proceeds.
