Project Sister Family Services - leading families to safer futures since 1972

You are not alone. It was not your fault. We are here to help.*

 

sexual assault crisis

and

prevention services

 

Project Sister Family Services (PSFS) strives to reduce the trauma and the risk of sexual assault, child abuse, and child sexual abuse in the East San Gabriel and Inland Valleys of Southern California by providing a variety of crisis intervention services and outreach and prevention programs.

Senior Safety


Creating Safer, Happier Retirement Years

Project Sister Family Services' Senior Safety program involves the delivery of presentations by our Prevention Education staff at area senior centers, retirement homes, senior mobile home parks and other facilities where active seniors congregate. The goal of Project Sister Family Services' Senior Safety program is to increase awareness among seniors of potential dangers and risks they face from perpetrators who seek to victimize them.

Seniors learn safety measures that decrease their susceptibility to sexual assault, robbery, burglary, and financial exploitation. They also learn what to do if they are sexually assaulted or otherwise victimized by predators, and are provided with telephone numbers for emergency contacts if help is ever needed. Print materials are given to seniors to take home, which address home safety, personal security on public transportation and when driving, how to avoid becoming a victim of financial exploitation, and how to become more aware of their surroundings.

Active seniors also are taught basic techniques for self-defense. Senior participants also learn risk reduction skills, and ways to identify and take appropriate actions in risky and abusive situations.

There is a great need for Project Sister Family Services program for seniors, because seniors face unique problems in maintaining their personal safety, due to the health problems, disabilities, limited income and isolation associated with aging that many of them face. In addition, seniors are seen as easy to victimize by younger sexual predators who seek employment at senior residential or health care facilities, or by elderly men who perpetrate sexual violence upon elderly women in their homes or in the senior facilities where both reside. In an analysis of National Crime Victims Survey data in 1998, researchers found that, for crime victims over the age of 65, elderly women were more likely to be assaulted in their residences than in any other location. In assaults against the elderly, 81% were committed by lone offenders, while 32% were committed by strangers. Of the violent assaults committed by lone offenders, the relationship between victim and offender were as follows: 6% intimates, 6% other family members, and 66% friends or acquaintances. Lastly, 75% of all crimes in the home involved doors and windows that were unlocked. There is a great need, then, for seniors to be taught ways to avoid victimization.

Thanks to Project Sister Family Services' Senior Safety programs, more seniors in our communities are becoming empowered and confident in their abilities to live safely and happily in their retirement years.

To learn more about our senior safety program, or to schedule a presentation, please call Blanca Perez at (909) 623-1619.

*24-hour Help Line • 909.626.HELP (909.626.4357) • 626.966.4155
7 days a week

For immediate crisis assistance, please call our 24-hour Help Line. All other questions or comments can be directed to Project Sister Family Services Information. Questions and comments should be non-emergency in nature and will be answered within a week of receipt.

How can we help?

older woman

Are you aware?

Less than 1 in every 3 sexual assaults is reported to law enforcement officials.*

A woman is raped every two minutes in the United States.*

1 out of every 3 women and 1 out of every 5 men in Southern California will be sexually assaulted.

Sexual assault is a violent crime affecting all ages, races, cultures and economic classes.

6 out of 10 sexual assaults occurred in the survivor's home or at the home of a friend, relative or neighbor.*

77% of sexual assaults are committed by people the survivors/victims know.*

Sexual assault survivors need help to cope with the physical, emotional, social and legal crises arising from their assault.

* Statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice