Cultivating Growth: Our Journey to Respect Together

This video tells the story of our organization’s history, represented by the journey of a seed planted, steadily cultivated and growing into an expansive tree. In 1975, survivors, advocates, and allies came together to form the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, the first state-level coalition in the country to advocate for the needs of Rape Crisis Centers across PA. This seed took root, and with the unwavering support of our community, it flourished, deepening our roots and extending our branches. In 2000, our work reached a national scale when we founded the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, still rooted in Pennsylvania but extending our branches out to support coalitions and state, local, and national partners across the U.S. Our organization’s nationwide impact continued to grow as we led initiatives such as Sexual Assault Awareness Month and the National Sexual Assault Conference. Supporting the establishment of Aequitas: Champions for Justice in 2009 and partnering to form RALIANCE in 2015. As the canopy of this tree extended further, we realized our name no longer fully represented the scope and depth of our mission. We sought a name representing the flourishing tree we had grown into as a leading national organization and our organization’s deep history as a statewide coalition established in Harrisburg, PA.
Through rebranding, we renamed the full expanse of our work Respect Together. We held onto the deep legacy of the name PCAR by keeping this acronym to represent one of the two main divisions of our work - the Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect. We remain grounded and rooted in our work as a statewide coalition. The trunk and branches that strengthened our national presence continue to be called the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, our organization’s other primary division. Respect Together continues to reach and grow toward the future and our collective mission: a world free of sexual abuse, assault, and harassment. We can only get there together.
Music I use: Bensound
License code: ZOUCXQCY27RCGV9N