The boards of directors and leadership of the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the Iowa Coaltiion Against Domestic Violence announced they will be moving forward as one unified organization. IowaCASA’s board of directors voted to dissolve the organization Wednesday, the nonprofit announced in a social media post. Mary Ingham, executive director of Crisis Intervention Service, and Johna Sullivan, executive director of Crisis Intervention & Advocacy Center, will act as co-interim directors of IowaCASA during the transition. 

ICADV is a membership-based organization with a network of 25 victim service provider agencies delivering support and advocacy for survivors of domestic and sexual violence and other violent crimes in Iowa. ICADV offers training, education and technical assistance to the service providers. According to a news release, direct victim service providers for sexual assault survivors will not be affected by the transition.

“The transition positions us to increase capacity to meet the evolving needs of service providers, manage significant threats to funding for victim services, and continue to offer coordinated and reliable support to organizations to help them effectively serve survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence across Iowa,” Maria Corona, executive director of ICADV, said in a news release. 

ICADV director of community engagement Lindsay Pingel said in an email that the organization is in the very early stages of considering a rebrand to reflect the change, but said that sexual assault services will remain a distinct identity within the organization’s priorities.

“Most importantly, direct crisis response services to survivors of sexual violence across Iowa are still available and will not be impacted by this transition,” Pingel said. “This is an operational change that does not result in any direct victim service provider agency closures or reduce the services survivors rely on every day.”