Get Help
In need of support? Call our 24-hour helpline: (802) 479-5577
Interested in meeting with an Advocate: please call to make an appointment.
We are not a drop in center.
Our advocates support and empower individuals who have experienced harm to take steps toward healing. We support people to identify their needs and take the steps that feel right for them. Our commitment to healing is lifelong, individualized, and can be full of ups and downs.
We believe that each personal and community experience of sexual harm is unique and complicated. Experiences of harm and responses to them can be varied and different for each person. We honor all the feelings and responses that people may experience.
We welcome people to reach out even when they aren’t sure where their experience fits into the spectrum of sexual violence.
Support & Advocacy
Mosaic welcomes and offers support to all people in Washington County, VT. We recognize that systems, identities, and experiences can all impact people’s ability to access the services and resources they need to heal from harm. We believe in every person’s right to bodily safety, freedom, and self-determination. Our services are here for everyone, regardless of whether they choose to engage or not engage with the legal system, report to the police, or other such processes.
Mosaic provides services that are individualized to support each person’s needs and goals. Our team is made of Advocates; trained professionals who provide confidential, non judgemental support for people who have experienced and been affected by harm. Speaking with an advocate can help you process what happened or how you’re feeling, help you understand your options, or help you locate other resources. Our advocates are trained to explain your options and support you in whatever choice you make. If you’re not sure whether an advocate is what you need, that’s okay– reaching out is a simple, no pressure way to explore your options.
Advocates can help you:
- By answering questions about sexual violence
- Find a path from harm to healing
- Process and understand physical and emotional responses to sexual harm
- Learn more about how to support someone you who has been harmed
- Get support in accessing community resources
- Understand and process what you’ve experienced
- By being present at a sexual assault nurse examination (SANE) or other appointments
- Navigate law enforcement options, reporting, and process
- Get support with financial expenses immediately following harm
- Get connected to mental health resources
- File for a protective order
- Safety plan about sex work
- Safety plan for exiting a trafficking situation
- Explore transformative and restorative justice options
Healing
Through creative practices, body-centered approaches, and guidance in building healthy relationships, we support people to explore paths to healing that resonate with them. Our work centers on creating and exploring spaces where individuals can reclaim self-determination, repair connections, and find a sense of belonging.
For many, healing is as much about personal transformation as it is about shared experience. Harm rarely occurs in isolation—it’s interpersonal, in communities, or within broader social structures—healing can be found not just in solitude but in the relationships we build and restore.
We’re here to support that journey; not only through moments of crisis but whenever it feels right through the ongoing process of reconnecting with joy, power, and others. This work happens through events, workshops, community activities, groups, and more!
To find out about upcoming groups and events, reach out to in**@*******vt.org
Clinical Services
Our services include crisis sessions to help stabilize and ongoing counseling. If you’re interested in becoming a client, we encourage you to reach out to li*@*******vt.org to see if we have any openings and set up an Initial Assessment meeting.
We have limited openings and may not be able to accommodate all requests.
How To Support A Friend
We know that when people experience harm, they often turn to people that they trust to talk to or seek support. It can be difficult to know what to say or how to support someone. Here are some tips to help, but you can also call our helpline and talk with an advocate to get advice on how to support someone, to talk about what you’re feeling, or to find resources.
Listen
Listen to and believe them. Don’t pry or press for details, people will share what they feel comfortable with or ready to talk about.
Respect
Respect confidentiality and privacy by not talking about or passing on any information that was shared with you. If you’re in a role where you need to share information, ensure that they understand how and with whom that information will be shared.
Respect whatever emotions are coming up for them. This means not making comments about their emotional response or being uncomfortable with body language, words, or actions. Everyone reacts differently to harm and sometimes reactions can be surprising or really different from what you may have envisioned. That’s okay; all responses and emotions to harm are valid.
Be Supportive
Be supportive of their decisions. Let the person decide what is right for them, even if it’s not the decision you would make. Let them know you are going to be there for them during any next steps they take.
Ask them what support looks like for them. Support and care can look really different for everyone. Let go of assumptions and ask what would be supportive.
Seek resources if you need help supporting them or if they want support outside of what you can offer. Not sure of your local resources, give us a call and we can help.
Prevention
At Mosaic, we educate, advocate, and build power for a world free of sexual violence. We offer a variety of individualized workshops and educational opportunities for educators, youth, and community members on topics related to understanding/ending sexual violence and healing communities from harm.
Mosaic approaches sexual violence prevention by offering people of all ages different strategies that help reduce the factors that put people at risk for experiencing violence. Our hope is to help people develop skills to support healthy relationships. Although we are experts in our field, we are not experts in each unique experience. We don’t believe we have the solutions, rather, we support people and communities to realize the solutions they already have, even if they haven’t yet recognized them.
We work to provide tools to prevent harm and foster environments where people can actively shift culture and support one another. By focusing on violence prevention and promoting collective well-being, we empowered individuals to take action in creating safer, more resilient communities.
Trainings & Education
Mosaic Vermont offers a variety of individualized workshops and educational opportunities for educators, youth, and community members on topics related to understanding and ending sexual violence, and healing communities from harm. Our workshops can be available for youth and/or adults. Please take a look at our current workshop offerings to see how Mosaic might be able to help your community:
How To Be A Peer Advocate
A community training that provides individuals with skills to advocate for and support friends and family following experiences of harm. (for youth and adults)
SEX EDUCATION
Comprehensive, inclusive, and shame-free education about sexual and reproductive health to educate and empower individuals about their bodies. (for youth and adults)
HOW TO SUPPORT YOUTH SURVIVORS
Trauma informed workshops on how to support youth survivors in healing, seeking justice, and accessing support services. (for youth and adults)
CONSENT, BOUNDARIES & HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS
Teaching consent practices in all aspects of our lives, the experience of boundaries changing with age, and how to develop healthy relationship skills. (for youth and adults)
YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
Offering youth leadership opportunities to affirm youth voice and help create a world free of violence by creating opportunities to share their work and make new connections. (for youth)
HOW TO BE AN ASKABLE ADULT
Education to increase, motivate, equip, and nurture adults by offering tools for adults to increase understanding, build skills and commit to action steps. (for adults)
We work with you to determine how Mosaic can best support your school or organization’s existing efforts to build a culture where people feel safe, connected, and free. We have a menu of prevention services, but we also know that prevention is fundamentally about working together to meet the unique needs of your community. Please reach out to us so we can work together to find the best way Mosaic can help you build a culture of safety, consent, and belonging for all people.