Culturally Specific

Cat has been with the Iowa coalition since 2001 managing the National Sexual Assault Coalition's Resource Sharing Project for the coalition. She provides capacity-building training and technical assistance to state and territorial sexual assault coalitions. In addition, she coordinates all national activities and events for the project. Cat has worked in the anti-violence movement since 1995 at national, state, and local advocacy organizations.

Prevention requires building lasting, meaningful relationships with your community. The below list, taken from Community Building: What Makes It Work, describes some of the key skills required in facilitators.

Understanding the Community

Successful community building efforts tend to have organizers who have a thorough understanding of the culture, social structure, demographics, political structure, and issues in the community.

Sincerity…

Cheryl Ann Graf has devoted her professional career to many aspects of Emergency Patient Care over the past 25 years. This has included Director of Emergency Services at Mason General Hospital in Shelton, WA and Clinical Coordinator of the SANE program at Harrison Memorial Hospital in Bremerton, WA where she developed and coordinated the SANE program and performed acute and chronic care examinations on sexual assault victims of all ages. Cheryl also had the privilege of directing the Mary…

This issue of the Digest focuses on research about children and teens that have come into contact with the criminal justice system because they are victims of crime. We know that one in four girls and one in six boys are sexually abused before the age of 18. When these crimes are reported, those individuals typically become involved with the criminal justice system.

As advocates, we recognize that the justice system can be complex, confusing, and often unpredictable. These concerns…

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…

Advocates are called upon to serve sexual assault survivors of all ages and stages of development. This includes serving children and youth survivors. Advocates may experience some confusion about how to provide best practice advocacy to young people who have been sexually assaulted. There are widespread concerns about how to have age appropriate conversations about sexual assault, and how to include relevant advocacy activities. Furthermore, advocates are often concerned with how to address…

After the 2019 legislative session, the Statute of Limitations (SOL) law was updated to eliminate the SOL for specific sexual assault crimes, and modify it for others. This law is not retroactive, meaning sexual assault crimes committed prior to this law’s effective date (July 28, 2019) cannot be prosecuted according to this new law. RCW…

This webinar is an introduction into the basics of Child Sexual Assault (CSA) Advocacy. Whether you have been working as a CSA advocate for years and are looking for a quick refresher or are a total beginner and these are your first steps into the field - this webinar is the perfect opportunity to dive into CSA Advocacy 101.

During the 2019 legislative session, legislation specific to the work of child sexual assault multi-disciplinary teams, or MDTs, was included. House Bill 5465: a law to direct multi-disciplinary teams to develop and implement protocols for online and commercial sexual exploitation was successfully passed. Included in this law is language clarification regarding information sharing between MDT…

In this training you will learn about the immigration system as it pertains to children. You'll learn about the current practices regarding detaining children at the Southern border and how these children end up living all over Washington state. You'll get a brief overview of the immigration court system in the United States.

Then, we will discuss various visas and other ways that child survivors of violence can obtain lawful status in the United States. Most importantly, we will…