Kate Thanks the Rape Crisis Center
I cannot express how exciting it is for me to personally announce that the Rape Crisis Center of Dane County has endorsed Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin with their full support for our grassroot efforts for the people of Wisconsin!
My name is Kate Thalacker, and please allow me to introduce myself this time as Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin’s Victim and Witness Coordinator. I know you all have seen my face and read my story through Marsy’s Law publications as a victim, and a lot more goodness has happened here in Wisconsin for equal rights for victims that I want to share with you now too.
Back in 2006, I started volunteering for the Rape Crisis Center of Dane County as a Crisis Line Volunteer. I believed in their cause, which was to help victims and survivors of sexual assault in any way possible. What stood out to me there was the way the staff always had the people they served as top priority, not to mention the care they gave to the community as a whole. After I shared my own sexual assault story in March 2018, I was surprised to see the Rape Crisis Center of Dane County was on the fence about supporting Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin.
Because the Rape Crisis Center of Dane County has a high level of care and concern for the people of Dane County, I knew why the organization needed answers regarding Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin and I made it my personal goal to speak with the people who shared my passion for helping victims of sexual assault. This was all before I had even considered being the Victim and Witness Coordinator for the state of Wisconsin – I needed to, as someone the Rape Crisis Center had helped in literally her worst moments, speak with them to understand why they didn’t support Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin.
Even now as I write this, the emotions come back remembering how concerned I was knowing the possibility of Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin not passing and just as importantly, not having the support from the one agency that meant so much to me. As the State Director for Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin and I sat in the meeting with two of the Rape Crisis Center of Dane County’s staff, I could see their concerns were solidly founded on ensuring the Constitutional Laws changed would only help level the playing field for victims, that the laws would help to empower victims to bring their perpetrators to justice, and that Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin would only help the people of Wisconsin by strengthening the laws we have in place currently.
My only goal back when I found Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin was to show that because of these new laws others would not have to endure what I had, which was no help from law enforcement or from the courts in holding my rapists accountable for what they did. No one had ever listened to me, but Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin did and while they did, they empowered me to do more for the people of Wisconsin by allowing me to help gain one of the most important agency’s endorsement, and then to be their Victim and Witness Coordinator.
Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin gave me a voice in hopes it would empower others to find their own and now, with the support of the Rape Crisis Center of Dane County, that hope will now become a reality for the crime victims throughout the state of Wisconsin. I am proud to say that as an even larger part of the Marsy’s Law for Wisconsin’s team that I too can make it a reality for victims and survivors of Wisconsin to be empowered though these new equal rights laws!
Thank you to the Rape Crisis Center of Dane County for being a part of our grassroots efforts here in the great state of Wisconsin!
Sincerely,
Kate Thalacker