Respect Together

The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR) was formed in 1975 to support and advocate for the collective needs of rape crisis centers throughout Pennsylvania. It was one of the first state sexual assault coalitions in the United States and one of the few to have a dedicated line item in the state’s annual budget. PCAR supports survivors of sexual abuse throughout all 67 counties of Pennsylvania, through a network of community-based centers.

PCAR received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part of the Violence Against Women Act, to create a National Sexual Violence Resource Center, that opened in July 2000. The NSVRC has grown to be a leading nationwide provider of information and tools, including hosting the largest resource library in the world devoted to sexual violence and its prevention and coordinating Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) activities each April.

Over time, the acronym PCAR was used to mean both the entire organization and also the state coalition activities. This created confusion, as did having a national entity under the umbrella of a state organization. For these, and other, reasons the organization was rebranded in 2023 as Respect Together. This name together with the tagline “united to end sexual abuse, assault, and harassment”, reflects the vision we are moving toward and that it can only be achieved by working closely with many partners and allies.

Respect Together unites all elements of our work under one name with the continuing operation of our two major divisions – the re-named Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect (PCAR), which focuses on advocacy in Pennsylvania; and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), which provides resources and prevention strategies at the national level. Together, we are working to disrupt the driving forces behind sexual violence to create and uphold safe, equitable communities with a culture of respect for all people.