Kim Trent's Fundraiser:

More than five years ago, 11,341 unopened, untested rape kits were found in a Detroit Police Department storage unit. Each kit represents a soul crushing brutal crime. Each kit represents a case that remains uninvestigated. Each kit represents a sexual offender who has never faced justice. Each kit represents a victim who doesn’t have closure. Enough SAID (Enough Sexual Assault in Detroit) was formed to raise money for the testing of the kits, as well as the investigation and prosecution of these forgotten crimes. Each rape kit costs $490 to process. Economic constraints in Detroit and Wayne County mean we cannot bring these criminals to justice without the donations of individuals and philanthropic organizations. The Enough SAID campaign is an independent collaboration between the Michigan Women's Foundation, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office and the Detroit Crime Commission. The goal of this collaboration is to raise private sector funding to test more than 11,000 forgotten rape kits, investigate the crimes and prosecute the resulting cases, thus securing justice and closure for victims and ensuring a safer community for everyone. The estimated cost to address the problem is $10 million. So far, funds have been raised to process 10,000 of the 11,341 backlogged kits, but the fight for justice is far from over. The major expense of this effort will be investigating and prosecuting the assailants who are identified. As a comparison, Cleveland, Ohio had a backlog of 4,000 rape kits and has hired 35 investigators to address the backlog. Detroit currently has 12 investigators. That’s not nearly enough. The great majority of the victims of these unsolved crimes are black women. Our mothers. Our sisters. Our daughters. Our neighbors. Our aunts. Our cousins. Our friends. Women who look and live like us. Now is the time for black women to use our voices and resources to show sexual assault victims that they have not been forgotten. Now is the time for Detroiters (and those of us who care about Detroiters) to demonstrate that we believe that those who commit sexual assault must be held accountable. While leaders in cities such as Houston and Cleveland have identified government resources to address their rape kit backlog, Detroit is not in a financial position to fund this critical effort. The calvary isn’t coming. As June Jordan famously said, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” Black women volunteers have created the “Enough SAID 490 African American Challenge.” Through the Enough SAID African American 490 Challenge, we will leverage the power of black women in our community to raise money for and awareness about this important issue.