Often in advocacy we are asked by survivors “why didn’t I fight? Why am I not a fighter?” This information can be useful to share with survivors and help them be able to think more kindly about their body/brain’s reaction to the violence they experienced.
The brain’s job is to take care of the body. The brain is divided into four key areas: the neocortex/cerebrum, the cerebellum, the limbic system, and the brainstem. Each area focuses…
The purpose of this tip is to help begin social justice conversations with kids (ages 10+) in the context of the film “Zootopia”. Often when looking for teaching tools to discuss social justice and violence, we go to educationally produced media. While these are often more intentional with their message, there is also a lot to be gained from utilizing pop-culture media. Although the film Zootopia remains true to the standard storytelling of Disney with the purpose of a feel good entertaining…
Advocates and therapists have important roles in promoting the healing of survivors of childhood and teen sexual abuse, as well as survivors' nonoffending family members. When we work together, we can develop strong partnerships that ensure survivors have therapy options that are relevant to their needs. This offers survivors and their families a continuum of care that can help ease, and possibly hasten, the path of healing.
This booklet was developed for advocates and aims to…
Many young people feel being pressured into having sex or participating in a sexual act before one feels entirely ready is a normal part of growing up; this is especially true if they have received little to no healthy relationship and sex education. However, we know this is a form of sexual violence and advocates working with youth have a unique opportunity to debunk this myth. Every person has complete control over their body and choice with whom and when they decide to hug, kiss, have sex…
What are some of the unique considerations in working with trans and gender non-binary youth who have experienced sexual assault? Join this webinar to gain practical skills in working with trans/gender non-binary survivors who are pre-teens and teens.
Content will address unique issues and strategies of working with both trans youth from supportive family structures and youth who do not have stable home or school environments. Topics will include: barriers to accessing services,…
All people need to be able to use the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity. This is a safety issue that arises for transgender people in places that are open to the public like gyms, restaurants, and retail stores. A unique issue for transgender youth is safe access to restrooms and locker rooms at school. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality:
…59% of trans students have…
Working with young people who have been sexually assaulted can often be a daunting task for advocates and volunteers. Often, sexual assault advocates are tasked with "specializing" in so many areas of victimization, that it becomes overwhelming. How can one use the expertise that they already have to their benefit when working with young people? What barriers stand in the way of serving youth in a relevant and empowering way? In this webinar, participants will get an overview of what makes…
Over the last several years, sexual assault service providers in our state have been working to enhance their response and accessibility to minor survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA). Ideally, we want to create communities that offer safety for young survivors to disclose abuse and agencies that are prepared to provide early intervention services. However, we know that for many reasons, CSA survivors may not disclose their abuse for years. Thus, we want to also be ready to meet the unique…
Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is a form of child sexual abuse. It is sexual activity involving a minor in exchange for something of value, or promise thereof, to the child or another person or persons. The young person is treated as a commercial and sexual object.
Often when schools and communities request a CSEC program this is connected to increased media attention of CSEC or in response to a recent incident. Programming that defines the violence and focuses on…
I recently read a comment from a child advocate that speaks to the core of why advocacy is such an important service for young survivors of sexual abuse in our communities: "I've been working for decades now with children who have experienced significant harm. Each of them expected nothing more or less from life than what they'd experienced." Ultimately, our goal in child advocacy is to help young people envision and pursue a life that is more than and different from the trauma they have…
A trauma-informed approach to advocacy with parents of children who have been sexually abused means considering the range of stressors that families encounter. Specifically, we must recognize the possibility that parents may also have experienced sexual abuse as a child. In conjunction with the services offered to children, supporting the healing of parent-survivors helps both generations. Advocates have an excellent opportunity to help parent-survivors focus on their strengths. While their…
This 1.5-hour training is an introduction to working with child victims (12 and under) who have an intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) and their non-offending parents/guardians. The training will be valuable to service providers who want to expand their knowledge about this unique and pervasive disability and develop skills in working with this underserved population. The training will include the following information:
Sometimes a video is worth a thousand words! Some of these videos are intended to demonstrate techniques for therapists, and some can be shown directly to child clients. If you like a particular video, do a search to see if it is part of a series by the same person or group, as several of these are. The duration of the video is in parentheses after the name.
Keane, Guest, & Padbury (2013) explored issues of sibling sexual abuse in their recent article. According to the authors, there must be a balance of concern for victims of sibling sexual abuse, as well as those who offend. They rejected the feminist framework that prioritizes victim rights (specifically in the instance of youth offending) in order to look at it from a developmental framework.
Adult theories of offending are located in research that suggests the…
Community sexual assault programs may receive inquiries from parents, caregivers, and professionals about how to understand and respond to children's sexual behaviors. It may be helpful to think about children's sexual behaviors as existing on a continuum — some sexual behaviors are healthy and normal, some are problematic, and others may become abusive. The resources below can help parents and professionals identify which behaviors are developmentally appropriate, which behaviors may be…
In this webinar, participants will learn how to boost and sustain their prevention work by connecting and integrating with existing sexual health education efforts. Violence preventionists can make the most of current national research, the Washington Healthy Youth Act, and Washington Department of Health Guidelines. We will discuss best practices related to STD and teen pregnancy prevention and sexual violence prevention. Preventionists will leave this webinar being able to make the case…
An unpublished report based on a Department of Justice study titled "Preventing Revictimization in Teen Dating Relationships" has just been released, and contains some thought-provoking results. The study was conducted under the direction of Dr. Anne P. DePrince of the Traumatic Stress Studies Group of the University of Denver. Briefly, they conducted research with high-risk adolescent girls involved in the child welfare system, with the goal of preventing revictimization. They tested two…
Like suicidality, talking about self-harm directly with young people who have been engaged in this coping mechanism can be hard. However, because such a vital part of our work as advocates is to discuss coping strategies and help survivors discover what mechanisms work best for them, discussions that involve self-injury, self-medication, eating disorders, engaging in risky sex, and other self-harming behaviors are integral.
Advocates are often the only people in a survivor’s life…
Confidentiality is the cornerstone of advocacy. While the basic principles of maintaining respect and privacy apply to survivors of all ages, consent and confidentiality issues become especially important and a bit more complex when the survivor is under the age of 18. By providing some clarity around these complexities, our hope is to ultimately increase minors' access to and utilization of advocacy services. Some of the issues that must be considered when working with minors are:
…Foshee, V. et all (2012). Journal of Adolescent Health.
Often when we think about teen dating abuse prevention programs, we think of programs delivered in a school setting. Moreover, we may even think specifically of the curriculum Safe Dates, as it is one of the only evidence-based teen dating abuse prevention curricula. However, the Families for Safe Dates program combined components of the Safe Dates curriculum with additional activities and presents them in a very new format: at…
Trauma can profoundly affect children's development. In an article highlighted on the website Zero to Three (National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families), Dr. Theodore Gaensbauer discusses the "Developmental and Therapeutic Aspects of Treating Infants and Toddlers Who Have Witnessed Violence." Dr. Gaensbauer's framework for understanding how trauma affects children has even wider significance, applying to older children and to those affected…
When youth in one study were asked if they knew "where to find resources for GLBT youth experiencing dating violence," only 10% identified domestic violence or sexual assault services (Freedner et al., 2002). Many sexual assault programs struggle to reduce barriers for teens to access their services; in the case of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning) youth, the barriers may be even more substantial. It's important to note that the term "teen dating violence,"…
"For someone to heal from PTSD, one must learn how to control bodily reflexes. PTSD causes memory to be stored at a sensory level-in the body. Yoga offers a way to reprogram automatic physical responses…What is beautiful about Yoga is that it teaches us—and this is a critical point for those who feel trapped in their memory sensations—that things come to an end."
—Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Trauma Specialist
As therapists working with sexual abuse…
Healthy sexuality is an important component of preventing sexual violence. Therefore there are several resources that can be incorporated into prevention programs. We know that it is important to deliver prevention programming that is socio-culturally relevant and developmental appropriate. So when working with youth or adults with developmental or cognitive disabilities, finding resources that are tailored to this community may be helpful.
Here are three curricula that focus on…
