Last night, rape kit reform passed in Georgia. But our advocacy to bring meaningful rape kit reform around the country still carries on.

We urgently need your support to keep work like this going.

Joyful Heart has worked over the past year to bring about legislation in Georgia—legislation to address the fact that we know virtually nothing about how many rape kits are sitting in storage throughout the state, and to ensure that from now on, all rape kits will be tested swiftly. Because of strong advocates like you, we’ve:

• Worked closely with legislative staffers to make sure the new law would address the major issues around rape kit processing.
• Reached more than 175,000 users on social media with the message to #endthebacklog in Georgia and rallied our community to make our voices heard. To those that took action: this victory is your victory too. Thank you.
• Collaborated hand-in-hand with the state sexual assault coalition, local rape crisis centers, survivors and other local advocates to make our voices heard.
• Worked with dozens of reporters to get the story straight: that reform in Georgia was overdue.
• Worked around the clock as Georgia’s legislative session was coming to a close to make sure it didn’t end without this rape kit bill being passed.

This is the kind of reform we work for in each state across the country.

Ending the backlog of hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits is our top advocacy priority. And our commitment is unwavering. We believe that the rape kit backlog represents a systemic failure to take sexual assault seriously and to respond with the full might of our criminal justice system. That’s why we use your dollars not to test rape kits one at a time, but to bring about the systemic change that is needed to get all rape kits off the shelves.

We urgently need your support to keep work like this going. Every day that passes without meaningful rape kit reform is a day more that survivors are denied the possibility for healing and justice, and dangerous offenders remain on the street.

Please make a meaningful donation today.