The MVP Model was created by Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society and Jackson Katz. Approaches youth as potential bystanders, not victims or perpetrators, to sexual violence, bullying, and harassment. Playbooks use scenarios in order to build bystander response skills. Official training of trainers is available.
Originally designed to engage student-athletes and student leaders to use their social influence over peers however can be used to engage a wide…
Messaging sexual violence prevention is such an important part of our overall strategy, but it can be tricky to create a compelling and hopeful pitch for prevention that will reach a broad audience, while also navigating deeply embedded rape myths & victim blaming.
This the second part in our series on messaging prevention. For this series, we draw from the guidance and toolkits developed in partnership by Raliance and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center with the…
Messaging sexual violence prevention is such an important part of our overall strategy. However, it can be tricky to create a compelling and optimistic pitch for prevention that will reach a broad audience, while also navigating deeply embedded rape myths & victim blaming. That’s why there’s a lot of research about how people hear our messages and what can support greater behavior change. It’s clear that the ways in which we communicate about sexual violence and prevention really matters…
Sexual violence is an endemic social problem in the U.S. The victim blaming attitudes of the civilian world often spill into military service, and those attitudes carry over into tours of duty. While the military has been in the spotlight for failing to support victims and respond to and prevent sexual assault, civilian criminal justice systems regularly and systematically fail victims too, and leaders in all forms of institutions fall short of adequately understanding and addressing the…
First in WCSAP's 2021 Keynote Series, Theda New Breast from the Native Wellness Institute, gives her talk on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2Spirit Awareness Day. She discusses grassroots organizing, healing work, and self-care "recess".
At WCSAP we are always working to support programs. Sometimes that means taking time to stop and recognize the amazing work that’s being done and the strength, compassion, and drive it takes for advocates to provide ongoing services.
Programs are generally really good at recognizing volunteers and contributors but sometimes they lose sight of those providing the services. Taking the time to genuinely show appreciation has proven to increase productivity,…
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…
A multidisciplinary response to sexual assault cases is beneficial to our work and our communities. It cultivates communication and collaboration among service providers and system professionals; increases the effectiveness of criminal justice, social service, medical, and community interventions; and ultimately, it improves the response to and experiences of survivors.
This approach is most often supported through the development of teams comprised of the primary stakeholders who…
Sometimes we use a myths/facts approach in community education. Is it useful? Not really.
Take this example from a flyer from the Centers for Disease Control.
Researchers read the flyer to people, and got some surprising results. Within 30 minutes, older people remembered about a…
In this issue of Partners in Social Change (PISC) are articles on two public health methods that are useful for re-evaluating and goal setting — Needs and Resources Assessment and Outcome Evaluation. Both methods are valuable to prevention planning, however they are also the two methods most often bypassed due to lack of knowledge, funding, time, and other resources.
Despite these limitations, it is important for us to be familiar with them and to creatively think of ways to…
