Sexual Assault Response Team Awarded $236K Federal Grant for New Site in Santa Barbara 

For survivors of sexual violence, the Santa Barbara County Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) — an interagency team including law enforcement, medical providers, and victim advocates — is there to walk them through the first steps to healing. One of the functions of SART is to collect evidence to hold perpetrators of sexual violence accountable, but that is “secondary,” said District Attorney John T. Savrnoch at a press event on Friday. 

“At its core, SART is people and a place where compassionate care is given and trauma-informed evaluations are conducted,” he said. “It is a necessary beginning of humane and caring treatment of survivors of sexual violence in Santa Barbara.” 

Friday’s press event was held in celebration of Congressmember Salud Carbajal securing a $236,375 federal grant to help SART and its associated Child Advocacy Center expand into a new facility in the City of Santa Barbara. 

“This funding will help renovate commercial office space and better meet the current needs of the SART program, and the survivors it serves,” Carbajal said. “The new space will provide a more appropriate setting for forensic examinations and critical services, while helping ensure greater privacy, safety, dignity, and comfort for survivors and victims.”

Called the SART Cottage Relocation Project, the new facility site will be provided by Cottage Health. It will include “wraparound services” for survivors with advanced forensic and recording technology to provide the “next generation” of trauma-informed care, said Megan Rheinschild, Victim-Witness Assistance Program Director for the DA’s Office. The funding comes through Carbajal’s 2026 government funding bill for projects countywide.

Formed in 1986, SART has grown to now serving 300 survivors countywide, including both children and adults, each year. Its medical examinations and legal interviews go hand in hand with emotional support and counseling services so that survivors can begin to treat their trauma while also working to hold their abuser accountable. SART has 21 partners, including the DA’s Office, rape crisis centers, and a team of forensically trained nurses and physicians. SART has been overseen by the DA’s Victim-Witness Assistance Program since 2008, when the DA’s Office began to expand SART’s services and further its reach.

As SART has grown, its “safe” locations — with no public address to protect survivors — have grown in number, from one location donated by Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara to two additional sites donated by Marian Medical Center and the Lompoc District Hospital to accommodate a larger swath of the county.

The Cottage location in Santa Barbara is the one set to be relocated and renovated. Savrnoch met with new president and CEO of Cottage Health, Scott Wester, and “the first thing” Savrnoch indicated was that SART needed a new home, Wester explained on Friday. 

Wester said that while the criminal justice aspect of SART’s work is important, it is more important to “treat the human as a human,” and provide the level of care needed, then go on to “ensure that justice is had.” 

Rhineschild agreed.

“This new site is not just a physical location, but emblematic of what we do as partners,” she said, “meeting up with survivors and victims as their first introduction to law enforcement and the criminal justice system, and what we all do together … paves the way for a person’s recovery.”