SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, sexual assault on college campuses is one of the most on-campus crimes in the U.S.
A company based in San Marcos is using technology to help sexual assault survivors.
"Sometimes, as a survivor, you have to scroll through a lot of information, and it's hard to know where to begin," Maggie Salter said.
Slater is the founder of Here4U.
It's a web app that helps a person decide what to do after they've been sexually assaulted on campus.
Currently, Slater is working with students at the University of Alabama to launch it there.
"They're [students] really in charge of helping us work on prevention and meeting students where they are," Maggie said.
Here4U offers a question-by-question approach in which the survivor can choose what path they want to take, whether it's seeking justice or self-care.
"Then they can get that customized resource report and start to take their power back, feel more empowered to make that specific to what they're looking for," Maggie said.
Slater's daughter, Alyssa, was sexually assaulted in elementary school.
She's now a college sophomore and said talking about sexual assault is not as taboo as it used to be, but it could be better.
"I think most of the time people joke about it or brush it off, or they don't really know how to approach it," Alyssa said.
Here4U allows the survivor to stay anonymous while seeking help, which Alyssa said is important.
"As someone who kind of knows what that's like to broach the subject or bring it up, it can take a lot of courage and be hard to do," Alyssa said.
It also gives a list of the pros and cons of their choices.
Next month, Slater said the web app will launch in San Diego County.
She said the goal is for more survivors to feel comfortable seeking help however they choose to do so.
