New advocacy group formed to help prevent sexual assaults

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A new sexual assault prevention group has been formed roughly one year after a similar victims’ advocacy effort was found financially insolvent and disbanded.

Supporters say the newly formed Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault takes fiscal accountability seriously and has learned from the fate of the Indiana Coalition Against Sexual Assault, which dissolved in June 2014 after it could not pay its taxes.

Deborah Daniels, a court-appointed monitor of the former group, says the effort was well intentioned but not focused or collaborative enough to raise money needed to survive.

The new group has received preliminary funding from the state, but will pursue private, federal and state funding.

Advocates say their services are desperately needed. Indiana has the nation’s second-highest rate of teenage sexual assault.