San Luis Obispo -- The San Luis Obispo County Sexual Assault Recovery And Prevention Center that offers 24 hour assistance to victims of sexual assault is going to be closed for furlough days because of a lack of funding.
The SARP Center will be closed the second and fourth Monday each month to save money.
The agency is dealing with cutbacks in donations and state and federal funding.
The SARP Center provides a 24 hour crisis hotline and volunteers are available to accompany a victim anytime 24 hours a day.
The agency is facing a 70-thousand dollar shortfall, In part because of fewer donations and a 20-percent cut in state and federal money.
Ron moore is the chair for the SARP board, and is also a survivor of sexual assault as a child, he says, "What we do is everything is focused on healing that victim and educating so that assaults don't take place. The community suffers because you are going to have people who are in need of help who don't get that help and what that does is eventually as in my case burden society."
During the furloughs the hotline will still operate 24 hours a day but SARP won't be able to do as much community outreach.
SARP Center Executive Director Kristy McCray SAYS, "It's one of the most important parts of our funding, rape prevention education trying to make sure that this doesn't happen again, going into schools, talking to businesses, talking to the community, and making sure that they know how to prevent this from happening again in the future, and that is where the bulk of our cuts are coming from right now."
One of the SARP Center's biggest fundraisers is the "Walk A Mile In Her Shoes" event. It's held every year in April. The center is hoping for a boost in donations this year.
The crisis hotline is available 24 hours a day 805-545-8888
