From KERA:
The Turning Point rape crisis center in Plano is designed to be a place where survivors of sexual assault feel safe.
Outside each door, there’s a white noise machine for privacy during therapy sessions. Survivors also get a little stuffed puppy that looks like Brooks, the six-year-old Maltese-Yorkie mix who’s the unofficial mascot of the center.
Brooks is the service dog of Courtney Underwood, a sexual assault survivor and the namesake of the Turning Point’s 24-hour clinic: Courtney’s SAFE Place.
When Underwood was 15, she was raped at knifepoint by her pastor.
“It was completely out of the blue and violent, and I didn’t know what to do, and when I looked for help in Dallas, there was none,” Underwood said.
Underwood has made it her mission to make sure others have the resources she didn’t, including access to a sexual assault nurse examiner.
