Turning trauma into 'true' victim resource

Sarah was terrified and completely in the dark when plunged into the legal system as a victim of sexual assault. 

She had parents and friends who could drive her to the police station, a boss who gave her time off work, and easy access to the legal system.

But it was still harrowing, she told AAP.

"I'm a white, straight, cis and able-bodied girl living in the eastern suburbs of Sydney," she says. 

"If this was this hard for me, what must it be like for the majority of victims in this country?"

Sarah recently launched With You We Can, a network and resource led by victims of sexual assault.

For legal reasons, AAP is not publishing Sarah's surname. 

The platform's development has been a years-long process of cold calls and collaboration, with sex crime detectives, prosecutors and academics collaborating to help inform the resource.

It aims to empower victims to report sexual violence and to "demystify" the process. 

All of its information is fact-checked and the platform doesn't "bulls***" victims, Sarah said. 

With You We Can breaks it down from start to finish, leading victims from their first meeting with an investigating officer at a police station, to having evidence collected at hospital, and making a formal statement.

"It was a really bittersweet feeling, having so many pioneers of change get behind me in creating the resource," Sarah said. 

"It made me go, 'wow, this is a great idea', but it made me really sad that little old me had to create something like this.

"The government should be providing this information." 

With You We Can also runs through alternatives to reporting assaults to police before it gets into the finer details of the court process.  

It gives practical examples of what the timeline might look like for charges to be laid, pleas to be entered, and sentences to be imposed.

It also explains outcomes like hung juries, mistrials, and retrials.

The platform's knowledge hub breaks down legal terminology and laws by state and territory, and has a mythbusting section debunking common misconceptions about how and why sexual assaults happen. 

Sarah says With You We Can plans to launch an advocacy branch to lobby for criminal justice system reform, but the platform is for sexual assault victims who will miss out on the benefits of legal changes that can't be applied retrospectively. 

"There are people who are going through the system blindly right now," Sarah said. 

"They deserve to know what happens next." 

The criminal justice system is no longer fit for purpose, and support for victims is limited, impersonal and conflicting, she says. 

With You We Can links sexual assault victims to dozens of external resources - including books and podcasts that help with healing - and it eventually aims to go into granular detail about how processes might differ in each Australian jurisdiction. 

"We already know what needs to change ... there's academics that have been around forever in this space," Sarah said.

"It's just about getting that information, that research, and the support behind those reforms out there." 

With You We Can - found at withyouwecan.org - launched on December 8. 

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