SAAV was founded by Jane Piper, an actor, writer, events producer, and sexual assault survivor. After being brutally beaten and raped by a stranger in the summer of 2003, the Los Angeles Police Department successfully recovered her assailant’s DNA but sadly had no luck finding him.

With time passing and no new leads, Jane was told there was nothing to be done for her case but wait for it to happen to someone else. Waiting for another woman’s suffering was not how Jane was going to heal and it was certainly not going to help prevent further violence. Instead, she took action. Having experienced many system inefficiencies first hand, Jane’s hope is to provide a new level of support not presently available to sexual assault survivors.

As Jane began her healing, she was discouraged by the complete absence of programs where survivors could come together to express themselves, their experiences, and together create something positive. Jane spent many years as an activist, using art and creative expression of all kinds as a tool to spread awareness of difficult and controversial issues. It was her vision from early on to turn this terrible experience into a lesson in compassion and self discovery and she knew there were many more women like her who were looking to do the same thing.Empowering women to rid themselves of the shame and secrecy that surrounds rape will hopefully create a new population of women strengthened by their experience instead of victimized.