Advocating for survivors of sexual harassment and assault, and transforming the systems used to address sexual violence in San Francisco.

WHAT WE DO

ADVOCACY

  • Receive complaints from survivors concerning the ways city agencies have responded or failed to respond to incidents of sexual assault.

  • Advocate for survivors navigating city agencies to resolve the complaints regarding the mishandling of sexual assault allegations.

POLICY

  • Build survivor-led community coalitions to recommend new and meaningful policies that provide support and resources for survivors of sexual harassment and assault within and without the criminal legal system.

  • Work with existing city response systems to address sexual harassment and assault incidents with dignity, safety and professionalism.

PREVENTION

  • Collaborate with community partners to engage in public education and culture shifting towards a San Francisco without sexual violence.

OUR MISSION

The Office of SHARP works to ensure that survivors are believed, responded to and treated with dignity by city government when voicing their experience of sexual violence.  We advocate for survivors in navigating the current response systems and we work with community to transform and create new system approaches to addressing and ending sexual violence.

OUR VISION

The Office of SHARP envisions a San Francisco with no incidents of sexual assault or harassment.  Should it occur, we envision a San Francisco with a variety of accessible options that a survivor can choose from to address their harm and healing process, each approach working to end the immediate violence as well as the conditions in which it was able to occur.

OUR VALUES

  • OUR WORK is led and shaped by survivors of sexual violence, particularly survivors who do not report, who have a history of mistrust of city government and court systems, and who’s voices are often left out of the conversation on sexual violence. We center Black women, Latinas, Asian/Pacific Islander women, Native women, transgender and gender non-conforming people, youth, workers in low-wage jobs, sex workers, undocumented people, people with disabilities and currently or formerly incarcerated people.

  • WE SEEK to support those harmed by sexual violence to be heard, heal and take action towards systemic change in the the ways San Francisco responds to sexual harassment and assault.

  • WE UNDERSTAND that sexual violence does not occur in a silo.  To address sexual harassment and assault we must also address larger structures of violence and oppression including racism, sexism, economic injustice, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, and xenophobia.

  • OUR WORK reflects the complex connections of all forms of domestic violence, harassment, coercion, and gender-based violence.

  • WE PRACTICE accessibility solidarity by providing services in multiple languages, offering culturally relevant support, following ADA compliance in our spaces, and responding to the unique needs of those who are both people with disabilities and survivors. 

  • WE UNDERSTAND our work within city government to be one strategy that is a part of a larger movement to end sexual violence.  We understand that to end sexual violence change much be institutional, interpersonal, policy driven and cultural. 

  • WE HONOR the legacy of feminists and anti-violence organizers who have come before us, particularly feminists of color whose work and analysis have created the space and foundation for us to be able to do this work today.

ABOUT SHARP

In July 2018, the Office of Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) (Ordinance No 215-18) was created by Supervisor Hillary Ronen as a City department under the direction and oversight of the Human Rights Commission.  In September 2019, Director KellyLou Densmore joined as SHARP staff.  The Office of SHARP was legislated in response to survivors of sexual assault in San Francisco coming forward to share their experience of the mishandling of their cases from substandard medical treatment, to further traumatization by law enforcement, to not being taken seriously by attorneys.  SHARP exists because of the brave voices of survivors who attempted to use the current city systems to address their cases with disheartening outcomes. SHARP joins the national movement to end sexual violence in being a force for political action, structural change, and healing.

The Office of SHARP is a survivor-centered and survivor-led office.  SHARP follows the leadership of survivors society hears from least, the most marginalized survivors who do not report, whose communities do not have a trusted relationship with government agencies, and are often kept down by the structural oppressions of society.   The Office of SHARP has the authority to hold accountable the current systems used in San Francisco to respond to sexual harassment and assault and SHARP commits to building beyond the current structures to address the unique needs and wants of all survivors in order to heal and thrive.