New Hampshire's Sexual Assault Resource Team (SART) Program
Partnering together to provide interagency, coordinated responses that ensure that victims' needs are a priority, hold offenders accountable and promote public safety.
What is a SART?
A SART is a multidisciplinary team of professionals that partner together to provide interagency, coordinated responses that ensure that victims' needs are a priority, hold offenders accountable and promote public safety.
In 2010, research data released in the report, The Reality of Sexual Assault in New Hampshire found that there is a lack of consistent collaboration among the various disciplines responding to adult female sexual assaults. It also found that variability in training and expertise in handling sexual assault cases contributes to how the system responds to victims. To address the various challenges surrounding crimes of adult sexual violence, the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office began a statewide county-based initiative to develop and implement Sexual Assault Resource Teams (SARTs) throughout the state.
SARTs function in various ways to support victims' rights, commit to meeting victims' needs, increase understanding of victims' trauma, and work to improve the quality of investigations and successful prosecutions of reported cases through increased training opportunities.
Who are the SART members?
SART members include:
- Advocates (both crisis center and prosecution-based)
- Specially trained medical professionals known as Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners or SANEs
- Other medical providers
- Law enforcement
- Prosecutors
And representatives from:
- Mental health
- Adult protective workers from the Bureau of Elderly & Adult Services (BEAS)
- Veterans Affairs
- College and universities
- Faith-based communities
- Administrators and forensic interviewers from child advocacy centers
Statewide SART Efforts:
The county-based SARTs are connected through a dedicated coordinator at the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office, Office of Victim/Witness Assistance. Working closely with the SARTs as they develop and become sustainable in their work provides opportunities for resource sharing, technical assistance and consultation when requested. Since the coordinator is also included on numerous statewide initiatives working for systemic change for sexual assault victims, there are avenues for communication of local SARTs' efforts, identified challenges and suggested improvements. Several of these suggestions have been implemented and have contributed to our improved system response to victims.
