Tips & Guides

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…

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…

For many of us music can have an important and influential role in our lives. It's more than just a means of enjoyment though, it can also be a platform for communicating social norms. That's why a lot of prevention efforts include media literacy skills. As preventionists, one of our biggest roles is to facilitate meaningful conversations that will help lead communities towards prevention that is personal and more likely to be effective. Therefore before diving right into the fun of…

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…

This tip is about consent-now I know you might be thinking, again? But hear me out.

Yes, consent is a fairly common topic area in sexual assault prevention, and there are good reasons for that. Far too often though we come up with reasons why we CANNOT teach consent. Things like the kids I'm working with are too young for that, or the school doesn't let us talk about sex. And this is why this Tip is about consent... without sex.

It's About So Much More

A recent…

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…

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.

Helpful Thoughts: CBT Activity (6:35)…

Even though we work in the anti-violence field, we sometimes overlook the need for workplace violence prevention and intervention plans for our own programs. While agencies may be well aware of the risk of violence from an abuser who is connected to a client, we may not consider the possibility of employee-to-employee violence, risk from someone who is stalking or abusing a staff member, or threats from a worker whose employment is being terminated.

Managers could use the following…

In our work to end sexual violence, sometimes best practices in prevention and what communities want to hear about (i.e. awareness and education) are not the same thing. Large school assemblies and tips for staying safe at parties are often welcomed by our communities — these make them feel safe and don't ask too much of them. With limited resources to do our prevention work, it is important that we are able to distinguish between primary prevention and awareness or risk reduction activities…