NYC Health + Hospitals North Central Bronx has launched what hospital officials and the borough's advocates are calling the Bronx's first hospital-based rape crisis program, giving survivors of sexual violence a new source of free, confidential support at the hospital. The program offers individual and group counseling, in-person accompaniment to emergency-room medical and forensic exams, and help navigating medical, legal and prosecutorial systems.
The launch, reported Thursday by the Bronx Times, makes North Central Bronx the second rape crisis program within the entire NYC Health + Hospitals system, following Bellevue Hospital, which holds the system's first. It also gives the Bronx a second program overall, alongside the Kingsbridge Heights Community Center, according to the Bronx Times report by Marina Samuel. The designation follows the state Department of Health's decision to officially accredit North Central Bronx as a Rape Crisis Program on November 6, 2025, according to NYC Health + Hospitals.
A Hospital Built on Round-the-Clock Response
The new rape crisis program builds on infrastructure that has existed at the campus for years. The Jacobi/North Central Bronx Sexual Assault Response Team already provides clinical and forensic services every hour of every day, per NYC Health + Hospitals, with the SART team continuously on call to lead forensic examinations, acute stabilization and longer-term advocacy across multiple municipal hospital campuses. North Central Bronx also holds the distinction of being the first site in New York State designated a SART/SAFE Center of Excellence, the hospital system notes.
Across the broader NYC Health + Hospitals system, 11 hospitals now have specially trained sexual assault response teams embedded in their emergency departments, according to the Bronx Times, with those teams structured to get survivors emergency-department care within an hour of arrival. The Office of Victim Services Resource Connect lists North Central Bronx as a service provider.
Hospital Leadership and the District Attorney Weigh In
Christopher Mastromano, chief executive officer at NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi and North Central Bronx, said sexual-violence survivors deserve compassionate, confidential support through their healing and recovery, according to the Bronx Times. He added that the new program connects survivors with trained professionals equipped to address the medical, emotional and social challenges that follow an assault.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark also weighed in on the launch, saying it creates a more sustainable support network and invites broader discussion of survivor-first systems, the Bronx Times reported. Clark said Bronx survivors deserve compassionate, comprehensive support regardless of where they live or what stage of healing they are in. Her office's own rape crisis center has a notable history: for decades it was the only state-accredited rape crisis center housed within a district attorney's office, before the state Department of Health changed its rules on district attorneys' offices operating such centers.
The Overnight Work of a Rape Crisis Counselor
Tobie Buford, a rape crisis counselor, described the unpredictable hours the job demands, telling the Bronx Times she may be called to the emergency department at 2 a.m., 3 a.m., or 4 a.m. Once there, she supports survivors during exams, helps them fill out forms, and offers moral support through what can be one of the hardest nights of a person's life. Buford said she hopes more people apply to become rape crisis counselors, because the need for help keeps growing.
The program currently works with eight volunteer advocates serving survivors across the North Central Bronx and Jacobi campuses, according to the Bronx Times. NYC Health + Hospitals plans to expand that pool through 40-hour training sessions set for January 2027, with capacity to train up to 60 people a year.
A Launch Amid Statewide Funding Strain
The new Bronx program arrives as rape crisis centers across New York face significant cuts to federal funding distributed through the state Office of Victim Services, per the Bronx Times. That strain shows up starkly in the numbers: the 2026 Office of Victim Services funding cycle drew 316 applications seeking $626.1 million over two years, exceeding the $253 million available over two years by $373.1 million, according to Spectrum News. The state has called that $126.5 million annual award the largest investment in victim services in its history, even as some programs statewide receive less than in prior cycles, the outlet reported.
The squeeze is already being felt locally. Kingsbridge Heights Community Center, the Bronx's other rape crisis program, has reported that limited capacity has forced children who experienced sexual abuse to wait for therapy, according to Columbia News Service, which found that as funding dries up and case numbers rise, staff statewide are stretched thin and waitlists grow. The Bronx was also described in a 2025 Mayor's Office data brief as reporting the highest population-adjusted rates of rapes and sex crimes among the five boroughs, per the Bronx Times, even as Manhattan currently has six hospital-based rape crisis programs compared with the Bronx's two.
Part of a Wider Network of Care
North Central Bronx's new program joins a small roster of hospital-based sexual assault response efforts across the city. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, for instance, operates its own Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner program, offering medical care, forensic examination and documentation, and crisis counseling, and it too is designated a SAFE Center of Excellence by the state Department of Health, according to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The state's Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence also lists NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue's Victim Services Program and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center's Rape Crisis Program among the city's service providers.
For now, the North Central Bronx program stands as a new front line for survivors in a borough advocates say has long needed more capacity. With training sessions planned for January and a hospital system pushing to grow its volunteer ranks, officials are betting that more trained hands at the bedside can help close the gap between need and available support.
