National Sexual Assault Online Hotline

National Sexual Assault Hotline  •  1.800.656.HOPE  •  Free. Confidential. 24/7.

National Sexual Assault

 

Online Hotline

 

 

A Groundbreaking New Service for Sexual Assault Victims

How You Can Help

RAINN is launching the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline to help and support victims of sexual assault who may be unable or unwilling to use the national telephone hotline.

The Online Hotline is the first of its kind: a safe, secure, live, and anonymous online resource for victims of sexual assault, their families, and friends.

How It Works

Using a secure and anonymous instant-messaging format, the Online Hotline allows sexual assault victims to communicate directly with trained crisis support volunteers from local rape crisis centers across the country.

All trained volunteers have successfully completed state-mandated training, and receive ongoing supervision from their local center. Online Hotline supervisors continually monitor sessions for quality control.

In addition, the Online Hotline website provides a library of information about recovery, medical issues, the criminal justice process, local resources, and support for family and friends of victims.

The Online Hotline
messaging window

Ensuring Users' Privacy

Privacy and confidentiality are of the utmost importance. We worked with our tech partners to build a new communications infrastructure from the ground up that integrates security and anonymity at every level.

The application does not capture the IP address of users, so sessions can't be traced back to them. We developed a session controller that, once it connects a user with a trained volunteer, breaks the link to ensure that no record of the session or user remains. Finally, transcripts of sessions are never stored.

The website also provides instructions for users on how to clear private data from their computers after a visit or session.

How You Can Help

• Be an Online Hotline Volunteer: Help us provide live crisis support through the Online Hotline by becoming a trained volunteer.
• Be an Online Hotline Partner Crisis Center: We encourage all local crisis centers to participate in this groundbreaking service, which will allow them to reach even more of those in need.
• Awareness Advisory Board: The Online Hotline Awareness Advisory Board (OHLAAB) is a group of creative and committed people who are helping us shape the marketing campaign for the launch and introducing the service to their friends, neighbors and community.

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Our Partners

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This project was supported by grants awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Office on Violence Against Women, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

© RAINN 2006  •  info@rainn.org  •  1.800.656.HOPE  •