A local rape-victim service is dropping the word “rape” from its name, partly as a way to make it easier for the agency’s workers to reach out to local schools.

As of this month, officials from Rape-Victim Survivor Service are reinventing their agency under the name GaDuGi SafeCenter.

The word “rape” suggests blame to some people, and it causes uneasiness among some parents and school officials, said Sarah Jane Russell, the agency’s executive director. Statewide, there’s a growing concern about the use of the word “rape” in such agencies’ names, she said.

“When counselors are trying to write letters home introducing who we are to children, that’s been kind of a sticking point,” Russell said. “The reaction has been they just don’t use our name because they don’t want parents to be concerned. … We need to find a user-friendly name that gets us in the door, that doesn’t put people on the defensive or make them afraid.”

Another problem with the old name is that it doesn’t reflect everything the agency does. The problem in schools arose in recent years as the agency expanded its educational programs, including presentations to grade-schoolers about bullying and sexual harassment.

Sharen Steele, principal at New York School, said she’d heard second-hand about the problems that Russell had cited.

“I think she … saw there was enough discomfort in some people’s minds that it kind of brought that barrier up,” Steele said. “It was so different from one school to the next.”

The phrase “GaDuGi”– pronounced “GAH-doo-GHEE” — is Cherokee for “working together as a community toward a common goal.”

The agency sought permission from the Cherokee Nation before adopting the name, Russell said.

Rape Victim-Survivor Service, which advocates and provides support for survivors of sexual assaults, will remain as one of the services offered by GaDuGi SafeCenter.

The agency, founded in 1972, is housed at the United Way, 2518 Ridge Court. Russell said she hoped that within five years the agency would have its own self-contained “advocacy center.”