Realities of Funding Veto for the Rape Crisis Center serving Duval, Nassau and Baker Counties—

This veto communicates indifference and ignorance with regard to the pervasiveness of sexual violence in the communities around our state and the needs of the people directly impacted.  To have the decision made within April, Sexual Assault Awareness Month, adds insult to egregious injury.  At least it certainly communicates the extent, or lack there of, of "awareness".

We will continue to serve – but it just became more difficult to do what we do.

We will continue to create awareness around the realities of living in a rape culture, which harmfully excuses the objectification and hyper-sexualization of women and men, to the extent that we regularly blame victims and by doing so silence them.

We will continue to intervene within hours after victimization for ANYONE – to hold space for their coming undone, to hold their hand as they offer their bodies up as crime scenes so that the evidence of another’s invasion can be collected from them.  We will continue to dare and explore the possibility of ‘hope’ with them.

We continue to assure them that they are not alone – whether they have called us at 4:00 in the morning because the gravity of the assault is haunting them yet again or whether they need us to hold them up as the verdict, deciding the fate of their rapist, is read in a courtroom.

We will continue to advocate with landlords who need help understanding why someone raped in their home will have a difficult time returning and therefore, may need to be excused from their lease or assisted with relocation.

We will continue to create visibility around our presence here and our services for those we know to be our community’s under-served – LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) victims, elder victims, male victims.

We are going to continue doing what we have always done because THIS is the work we choose.  Day after day, night after night, WE are here – because we choose to hold space for victims of sexual violence who have experienced the dehumanizing annihilation of their physical bodies, to the extent that it touches their spirit.

We will continue to do all of this and more…but we will do so with less – without hope for more.

Tina C. Vaughn

Director, Rape Recovery Team

The Cultural Blind Spot



Let there be no confusion - men are victims of rape and they have LONG been overlooked and underacknowledged as victims of rape.

The Uniform Crime Report definition of rape, before recent changes, enabled a cultural blind spot.  According to the former language, men could not be victims of rape.  The old definition, right out of 1927, was: “the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.”

This change is but a small one in the direction of creating space for men and boys to disclose sexual abuse/assault/violence against them - the next step is up to each of us.

New York Times recently ran a story on men as victims of rape - you can read it here.

The Rape Recovery Team serves ALL victims of rape - women AND men.  There will be no cultural blind spots here.

Defriending My Rapist


This New York Times Opinion Piece gave us chills in the office and beyond that, rekindled our spirit for the work we do.  Defriending My Rapist is the story of a woman who carefully silenced herself for years lest she be forced to speak of the horror she endured on the night she was raped by five male teenagers.

Everyday we hear new stories but we have learned, after much time and experience, to NEVER believe we have heard it all or heard the worst.  Rather, we brace ourselves after each story takes our breath and we dig in heels that we beg not to fail us knowing the 'worst' is undefined and will always take the shape of the one we are hearing from and holding space for at that very moment in time.

For this woman, the mob of teenage rapists - their faces, their words, their violence - lived on in her mind and then at once, she is confronted with a friend request on Facebook from one of them.

What she decided to do is the climax of this story - please take the time to read.

You-Are-Loved Chalk Message Project

You-Are-Loved is an annual nationwide, suicide-prevention awareness initiative that combats hateful rhetoric toward the LGBTQ community through positive chalk messages.

The Rape Recovery Team supports messages of love anyway because our hope is bound in the idea that love will overcome hate.  Our clients spend every day after their assault learning to love again, learning to trust, to heal, to piece back that which is broken...messages of love serve as the mortar for those pieces.

During the month of October, the Rape Recovery Team will be involved in several community and college events:

October 4th - University of North Florida's Women's Center's "Take Back the Night"

October 11th - University of North Florida's LGBT Resource Center's "Coming Out Day"

October 16th - Jacksonville's River City Pride Festival

At each event, RRT will host a You-Are-Loved Chalk Message Project.  For our LGBT events, those messages will be written for our sisters and brothers of the LGBTQ community, expressing love and support.  For our Sexual Violence Awareness and Survivor event, we tweak the purpose of the project a bit and invite messages for our sisters and brothers who have been raped and need our love to honor and bolster their journey.

One message of love and hope at a time, we trust that hate can be dismantled at best...overpowered at least.

We Give Project

Rape Recovery Team is in need of funds to purchase necessary items to include in the care packs we offer victims of sexual violence in the immediate aftermath of the violence against them. 

Please support our cause by clicking on the project link here.

Thank you for your support of our anti-violence work - may the hope and healing continue.

In love,

Tina Vaughn, RRT Director

The Angel Band Project

On Friday, August 12^th 2011, Isaiah Kalebu was found guilty of murder – Kalebu was also found guilty of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree rape and first-degree burglary.  He is serving life without the possibility of parole.

Teresa Butz and her partner Jennifer Hopper were sleeping in their home July 19, 2009.  Jennifer woke to him first as Kalebu stood by their bed naked and holding a knife.  The horror began and for the next 90 minutes, he raped, stabbed and beat them both.

The couple prayed together during the vicious assault and at one point, Teresa whispered to Jennifer, “I’m sorry”.

During what would be the final minutes of the attack, Teresa drew her line when she saw Jennifer being stabbed – she kicked Kalebu off the bed.  He responded by stabbing her in the chest and the arm but she managed to summon up enough strength to throw a nightstand out of the window.

At this time, Jennifer ran for and escaped through the front door.  Teresa managed to crawl out of the window.  Kalebu fled their home.  Within minutes, Teresa died in her front yard from the injuries she sustained. Kalebu would be in custody within five days, never to deny what he had done.

On September 12^th 2009, the day she and her partner Jennifer had chosen as their commitment ceremony, the family held a memorial to honor Teresa’s life.

The Angel Band Project is a musical reaction to this loss. Told in song by Teresa's very large and very musical family. One of whom is a Tony-award winning singer and actor. They are like a cross between the Von Trapps and the Staples Singers.  Teresa's partner, Jennifer, who was nearly killed in the attack, is also featured on the CD:

Dare We Normalize Rape...

...to the extent that we plan for it?

I am afraid that is precisely what Kansas Representative Pete DeGraaf did when he likened a woman planning for the likelihood of being raped, becoming pregnant and seeking an abortion to...I can hardly say it with a straight face, 'planning' for a flat tire by having a spare on hand or death by having life insurance.

"I have a lot of things that I plan ahead for." - DeGraaf

This sort of comparison is way off the mark and hardly a platform for alleged reason.

The representative is really being called to the table on this one.  The Kansas Chapter of NOW has asked for an apology - I have not been able to find if they or other constituents actually received an apology from DeGraff for his insensitive, trivializing comments.

Mother Jones ran an article featuring a Venn Diagram on Rape v. The Flat Tire and there was a campaign on Facebook to send the representative spare tires to protest his thoughtlessness.

By suggesting that ANYONE, but in this case, women, plan for the possibility of rape, normalizes it and I am not content to normalize this act of violence.  Not now.  Not ever.