For the past five years, attorney Jessica Pride has been proud to partner with the Center for Community Solutions, the only rape crisis center in San Diego with a countywide bilingual crisis hotline.

A recent article on the CCS website highlights this partnership and tells the story of how CCS inspired Jessica’s decision to devote her practice to fight for the rights of sexual assault survivors in San Diego.

The article relates how Jessica came into contact with CCS while practicing law at another San Diego firm. Her first experience of representing a sexual assault survivor brought a tremendous sense of satisfaction, different from the feeling of other cases she had fought and won.

Sensing that she had found her true calling as an attorney, Jessica sought out CCS to learn more about how she could use her courtroom skills to serve the specific needs of this underserved community. It was under the auspices of CCS that Jessica received the state-approved 60-hour Crisis Intervention Training, which trains advocates in counseling skills along with the emotional, medical, and legal aspects specific to sexual assault.

This training has proved integral to Jessica’s entire approach to serving sexual assault survivors. Her experience has shown her firsthand that sexual assault victims must have their most basic needs met—needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and safety—before they can regain their personal power. Jessica’s decision to create her own law practice is based on the desire to fight for the financial justice that enables survivors to meet those basic needs so they may take very important steps towards the healing process.

Since receiving that training from CCS, Jessica has had the opportunity to partner with the center in significant advocacy work for sexual assault victims. A recent case brought the Pride Law Firm together with a survivor of sexual assault who had sought help at CCS. Together, the two organizations were able to create a successful case that ultimately brought forward 14 more survivors to speak out. This case was an amazing success that resulted in financial justice for the claimant and an end to the cycle of sexual violence that had previously silenced so many voices.

The Pride Law Firm is grateful to CCS for their partnership and for this article that draws attention to the important work being done by both the organization and Jessica Pride.