24/7 Confidential Hotline Number: (413) 597-3000
The Confidential Hotline Number connects you to one of of two places: the SAPR office staff from Monday-Friday 8:30am-7pm and the Elizabeth Freeman Center (866-401-2425) Monday-Thursday 7pm-8:30am and Friday 7pm-Monday 8:30am as well as some holidays.
The confidential hotline offers support to survivors (and those who care about them) in a number of ways:
- Immediate safety assessment and support: For those who have had a recent experience of intimate violence, we can assess your safety and help you access immediate safety resources, like medical care, no-contact orders, safe housing, etc.
- Medical support: If you have questions about your health related to an experience of intimate violence, hotline advocates can provide information about STI and/or pregnancy testing and prophylaxis, reproductive healthcare, and emergency services.
Hotline advocates can also provide information about SANE examinations (also known as “rape kits”) done at the nearest hospital. We provide accompaniment for survivors going through this process.
- Supportive counseling: If you’re working through the emotional effects of an experience of intimate violence, regardless of how long ago the violence happened, advocates are here to listen and offer support. If you’re not currently connected to ongoing emotional support through SAPR, Integrative Wellbeing Services, the Elizabeth Freeman Center, or a private clinician, advocates can help connect you to the resource that is right for you.
- Navigating the reporting process: If you’re thinking about reporting an experience of intimate violence to the college for formal adjudication or the the criminal legal system, hotline advocates can explain the process and connect you with the first steps in those processes. Because both SAPR and the Elizabeth Freeman Center are confidential resources, these conversations are not considered an official report to the institution.
- Connecting you with supportive accommodations and resources: There are many accommodations available, regardless of whether or not you want to pursue formal disciplinary action. These include housing changes, no-contact orders, and adjustments to class schedules. Advocates can help connect you with the right ones for you.
What does confidential mean?
There are two kinds of confidentiality. One is confidential within the Williams College Title IX system. Confidential resources do not have to share identifiable information with the Title IX office unless and until the complainant (the person who experienced the harassment or violence) wants to. The other type is known as legal privilege, which means that information shared with the confidential resource is not required to disclose the content of conversations or documents in a legal process without either the express permission of the survivor or a specific court hearing to determine that it is required. Anyone who answers the confidential resource hotline has both confidentiality and privilege.
Any confidential resource will have to break confidentiality if that individual assesses that there is an imminent threat of dangerous physical harm, including homicidality and suicidality.
FAQ:
What happens when I call?
Like many of the on-call systems on campus, the hotline is answered by a confidential operator, who forwards your phone number to the on-call advocate. You’ll receive a return phone call from the advocate within 30 minutes.
Can I only talk about sexual assault?
No, we respond to many kinds of intimate violence, including sexual assault, relationship abuse, stalking, and sexual harassment.
Is this resource only for survivors?
The confidential hotline is available to all Williams students. We can provide support, resources, and information to survivors and those who have directly experienced intimate violence, as well as their friends, teammates, entry mates, and more. We are trained to support students of all genders and sexual orientations.
If you are concerned that you may have harmed someone else, we can help you get established with appropriate resources on and off-campus.
Does calling count as an official report? Will it trigger disciplinary or legal action?
This is a confidential resource in the Williams system, so conversations are not considered formal notice (or a “report”) to the institution. There are two exceptions to this. The first is that the Jeanne Cleary Campus Safety Act requires that Williams keep an accurate annual count of any Title IX/Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) crimes, which include dating a domestic violence, rape and sexual assault, and stalking. We maintain and share these counts in an anonymized, aggregated form. The second is if there is an imminent threat to an individual’s safety or an ongoing threat to the community. In these cases, the advocate would have to alert a Title IX administrator, who would make all efforts to ensure survivors are consulted about their wishes and follow these wishes to all degrees possible.