Celebrating 20 years of helping sexual assault victims through the Sexual Assault Survivor Advocacy Program makes John Hall proud.

Although he has been with the program for just four years, Hall has moved from being a volunteer to the coordinator of the program in Athens, Hocking and Vinton counties.

"We deal with everything from rape to incest," Hall said. "We provide all sorts of programs including Careline, Survivor Advocates and a child abuse teaching session."

Careline is a service that provides trained volunteers who answer questions or concerns a sexual assault victim might have. They help with nightmares, flashbacks and other emotions the victims might have, he said.

The Survivor Advocates program puts victims in touch with a volunteer who helps them with the recovery process, Hall said. The volunteers go to court with the victim, talk to their family, deal with guilt issues, go to the hospital for rape testing and offer support.

"Our main goal is to provide crisis service for anyone involved in sexual assault," Hall said. "We want everyone to be a survivor, not a victim of sexual assault."

Every quarter, three support groups are held for male sexual assault survivors, female rape survivors and female incest survivors, Hall said. They also have a library for the community to use that carries books about everything from gender issues to rape issues.

Hall oversees a group of 33 volunteers and two paid staff members. Some of the volunteers are sexual assault survivors and some just want to help, Hall said.

Athens resident Claudine Voykin has been a volunteer for two years. Although she is trained for Careline, she prefers to work with the child abuse program, where she goes to elementary schools and middle schools to teach children what good and bad touches are, she said.

"We show the children that

they can say no to anyone, even their parents, if they're being abused," Voykin said. "It's a wonderful program."

Ohio University senior Jennifer Berthelot, a social work major, works at Careline 160 hours per quarter in the office and 100 hours per month carrying the beeper for the survivor advocate program.

"(Careline) is so imperative to have because there are so many survivors that don't know what their options are," Berthelot said.

Sometimes Berthelot feels the pressure from her volunteer position because of the emotional strain of the job, she said.

"There's days when I just want to cry because I'm so bitter at the world," Berthelot said. "But it's also empowering because you're making a difference in someone's life."

The Sexual Assault Survivor Advocacy Program is funded through grants, donations and fundraisers. The phone number for Careline is 593-3344 or 1-888-475-8484.