Resources

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:

This Guide is a supplement to the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs' (WCSAP) general guide to psychoeducational support groups, Circle of Hope. Circle of Hope provides information about the nature of psychoeducational groups and how they differ from self-help and therapy groups. In addition, there is general…

Statistics can help people who are not familiar with an issue to understand it better. In the case of statistics about sexual violence, they can help community members, allied professional partners, and funders understand

1. how big the problem is,
2. how sexual violence impacts society as a whole rather than just individuals and families,
3. and why sexual assault advocates are necessary.

It is important to use statistics correctly…

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…

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.

Myth:

The flu shot can cause the flu.

Fact:

The flu shot cannot cause the flu. Some people get a little soreness or redness where they get the shot.

Researchers read the flyer to people, and got some surprising results. Within 30 minutes, older people remembered about a…

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…

Tell a prevention story.

We are trying to prevent a social problem: sexual violence is epidemic. Since we are tackling such a large issue, our efforts can draw disagreements or resistance. It is easy to fall into the argument trap, and try to fight fire with fire. After all, if they only understood, how could they possibly disagree?

Statistics are a natural thing to reach for when justifying arguments or preparing presentations. For you and me, statistics might tell a rich…

Sitting through a presentation or training can be difficult, but every now and then there is one that just works. You are excited, engaged, and alert! You care! You want to be there!

What separates the wheat from the chaff? What made that training matter to you? If it mattered to others in the room as well, it is very likely the trainer's methods were informed by understanding adult learning styles.

Adults have specific needs around learning. We want to know what is in it for…

When you have a staff member who has a negative attitude and doesn't really seem to care about the work, the first thing that comes to mind is "burnout." However, it is important to distinguish whether the attitude and behavior is a result of vicarious trauma — the changes in a person's inner experience that come about because of handling an overload of other people's traumatic experiences — or burnout, which is dissatisfaction with the job itself. In either case, it is important to assess…

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,"…

In this webinar we will explore using the bystander approach of sexual violence prevention with marginalized communities. Participants will expand their knowledge of the LGBTQ community, learn the basic principles of bystander intervention, and finally, using the LGBTQ population as an example, will practice customizing bystander intervention programs to the populations we work with. Though most bystander intervention programs in existence are geared towards college or university students,…

The bystander approach is a promising approach to sexual violence prevention as it encourages the community to take ownership of sexual violence as a problem and speak up when they witness potentially dangerous situations or sexist language. Other benefits of this approach include reducing victim blaming, includes everyone (gets men involved in a community issue, not a women's issue), and gives the community an opportunity it foster social change. Even so, it can be intimidating to become an…

Have you ever wondered whether it was okay to include a portion of someone else's work on your website, in your training curriculum, in a community presentation, or in a publication? Have you had concerns about protecting work that your organization has developed? These are important issues, and a little basic knowledge about intellectual property rights will be helpful to any manager in the nonprofit field. As a manager, you will want to ensure that you inform others about policies and laws…

"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…

We've all heard the phrase "break the silence" and it has been an important part of raising awareness of sexual violence and giving survivors a chance to speak out. We must remember that if sexual violence occurs on a continuum then our prevention efforts must also. Taking a stand against gender-based street harassment is a good opportunity to reinforce the message that we are working to create social change and live in a world free of language, attitudes, and actions that support sexual…

It's almost back to school time so let's really talk about what we can do to help protect youth from some of the dangers associated with sexting.

Let's Talk Data

Check out the report Interdisciplinary Responses to Youth Sexting: Recommendations from the Youth Online Safety Working Group (YOSWG), which synthesizes current research findings and gives recommendations to respond and prevent to sexting as…

There's a lot of prevention work happening all over the place. There's lots of ways to get "plugged in" to find out what is being done out there.

Google News Alerts

Google News is constantly crawling the web to index and deliver news and blog posts. You can setup custom news alerts and get things delivered right to your inbox.

I suggest a couple generic phrases like "sexual violence prevention" and "sexual assault…

Your work with parents is invaluable to the healing of child and teen survivors, families, and communities. Many programs have contacted WCSAP to inquire about resources and curricula for facilitating psychoeducational support groups for nonoffending parents and caregivers of children who have been sexually abused.

This guide includes:

• considerations for facilitators,
• a complete 8-week curriculum,…

As a Community Sexual Assault Program manager, you are subject to a formal evaluation process by your supervisor, whether that is the Board, an Executive Director (if you do not also fill that role), or someone else. However, most of us really want to know how we are doing at our jobs — and for managers, that means getting feedback from those who are supervised as well as those who supervise us. How do you get feedback from your staff in an appropriate manner without having them feel like…

This Guide is a supplement to the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs' (WCSAP) general guide to psychoeducational support groups, Circle of Hope. Circle of Hope provides information about the nature of psychoeducational groups and how they differ from self-help and therapy groups. In addition, there is general…

This documentary is an adaptation of Jessica Valenti's 2009 bestselling book "The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women." The documentary, which Valenti co-wrote the documentary with director Jeremy Earp, brings to life her argument by allowing the audience to see the pop-culture examples of the American media's problematical portrayal of women's sexuality.

The book and documentary both build upon Valenti's concept of the "purity myth," which she…

Including siblings in treatment permits families to realize the maximum benefits of therapy for the victim as well as each family member.

—Baker, Tanis, & Rice, 2001

A child can't help being affected in some way by the sexual abuse of a brother or sister, but siblings' needs are often overlooked.

Nonabused children whose siblings have been abused may have to deal with:

• confusion because adults do not…

The annual performance review can be an excellent opportunity to work individually with staff members to enhance their skills and abilities as well as their job satisfaction. Some managers (and some employees) dread performance reviews, seeing them as the venue for telling unwelcome truths. Done properly, however, these meetings can enhance your relationships with staff and volunteers.

• There should not be any surprises. Performance problems should be…