Strengthening Systems to Prevent Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence is a collection of nine articles summarizing the experience of the DELTA and EMPOWER programs.  Both DELTA (Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancements and Leadership Through Alliances) and EMPOWER (Enhancing and Making Programs Work to End Rape) began in the 2000s with the purpose of enhancing the primary prevention of intimate partner violence and sexual violence, using a public health approach.  The articles discuss a range of topics related to the programs, including evaluation, capacity building and theory.  Several case studies demonstrate the lessons learned from the project, which include five components of a new approach to prevention planning:

• The use of empowerment evaluation as a set of guiding principles
• Operating from an intentional and rich theory base
• Experimenting with strategies to promote inclusion
• Application of a data driven planning process
• The importance of building capacity

While specific to two CDC grant programs, Strengthening Systems to Prevent Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence’s findings, examples, and insights can inform anyone doing sexual and domestic violence prevention work, at state and local levels.  For example, Youth Action Strategies in the Primary Prevention of Teen Dating Violence offers a comprehensive look at a local project to prevent teen dating violence in Wisconsin.

Click here to access the book.

Citation

Conway, P., Cox, P.J., Cook-Craig, P.G., Ortega, S., & Armstead, T.L. (Eds.). (2013). Strengthening Systems to Prevent Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence. New York, NY. Routledge.

Description of the book (from Routledge)

Over the past 25 years, developing coordinated responses to intimate partner violence and sexual violence has improved both perpetrator accountability, and victim safety and self-determination. However, preventing intimate partner violence and sexual violence from occurring is beyond the ability of any one type of organization. Preventing this violence requires a network of individuals, groups and organizations who coordinate and assess their efforts on an ongoing basis.

This volume provides theoretical and practical guidance for the development of state and local prevention systems that hold the potential to eliminate persistent social problems. The development of prevention systems was informed by the data-driven public health model, systems theory and the ecological systems perspective. Strengthening Systems to Prevent Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence offers guidance on how to gain participation of the right partners in developing a prevention system, and how to focus the work of that system on the critical areas of planning, implementation and capacity building. The guidance, resources and experience shared in this important collection will be invaluable to all those working towards the prevention of intimate partner violence and sexual violence.

This book is based on a special issue of the Journal of Family Social Work.

 

Photo by NS Newsflash

Read the latest newsletter from PreventConnect here, featuring podcasts about the faux Victoria’s Secret Pink Loves Consent line, SAFER’s new study and report on college student activist activities, and a new prevention session about eliminating rape culture on college campuses.

Full link address: http://www.preventconnect.org/mail/newsletter/2013-05-15.html

FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture is an artistic and activist effort that creates media attention around issues in rape culture.  In 2012, they did just that with the  faux Victoria’s Secret Pink Loves Consent line. Listen to FORCE’s Hannah Brancato and Rebecca Nagle discuss Pink Loves Consent in the podcast below.

Click here to learn more about and support their efforts to build a national monument to survivors of sexual assault.

At the beginning of April, we told you about a new study on college student anti-rape activities. In this podcast, PreventConnect’s Ashley Maier discusses the study and report, Moving Beyond Blue Lights and Buddy Systems: A New Study of Student Anti-Rape Activists, with SAFER‘s Dr. Emily Greytak. Listen below to learn more about the study, key prevention findings and implications.

Ashley Maier of Prevent Connect and Alexis Marbach, now of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, are back with a new prevention session!  This time, they discuss sexual assault and domestic violence on college campuses.  Colleges and universities have certainly  made the news lately regarding sexual and domestic violence taking place at their institutions and student activists are speaking out.  So what does this mean for prevention?  Listen to Ashley and Alexis discuss this in the podcast below.

Today on her Facebook page, Jaclyn Friedman referred to the particularly “rapey news cycle” of late.  And that it is.  From sexual assault in the military, to the Cleveland kidnappings, these stories have generated a renewed look at norms around masculinity and how they contribute to rape culture, a culture that ultimately produces the events that lead to such “rapey news cycles.”

In an interview about the Cleveland kidnappings and rapes, Friedman stated that creating a world free of sexual violence, “requires cultural change and undoing toxic masculinity.”  Then, in an interview about the high rates of sexual assault in the military, she went on to say:

The dominant paradigm of masculinity is that we’re living in and the culture is defined as masculinity is derived from power over women and it makes people very uncomfortable to suggest we have to do the work of creating new ways to create masculinity that’s power with women…

Indeed, in the same interview, guests Angela Marie McDonald, discussing Vancouver’s Don’t Be That Guy campaign, and Politico’s Juana Summers call for culture change when asked just how one can prevent sexual violence in institutions such as the military.  “It’s very hard to culturally change an institution.  And that part can’t come from lawmakers,” Summers says about the military.

And new research confirms the need for culture change, particularly around notions about masculinity.  Psychologists from the University of Manitoba studied advertisements in men’s magazines and found that they promoted the following:

• Danger is exciting
• Toughness is a form of emotional self-control
• Violence is manly
• It’s fine to be callous about women and sex

These are hypermasculine beliefs, and as Huffington Post points out, “previous research has linked these beliefs to social and medical problems in men,” including violence against women.

So what can be done?  The news media has picked up on a key component of prevention violence against women – examining and changing harmful notions about what it means to be a man.  Read more about innovative initiatives to do just that on our blog, learn about these norms on our eLearning site, watch one of many web conferences about healthy masculinity, and continue the conversation.

At the end of April, Huffington Post Live hosted College Week, a week to discuss all of the hot topics related to colleges.  What can we do about the rising cost of college? Can college dropouts still get good jobs?  How can we combat rape culture on college campuses?

WAIT A MINUTE.

Rape culture?  Yes, Huffington Post Live, prompted by several recent high profile cases of sexual assault on college campuses, dedicated a full segment to the issue during College Week.  Featuring two students activists, a representative from the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR), and a faculty member from Rutgers, the segment was remarkable in that it went beyond a typical presentation of incidents that have occurred.  Instead, it framed the issues as environmental and, most of all, preventable.  As PCAR’s Kristen Houser offered:

[Sexual assault prevention] needs to be a number one priority in terms of creating an environment where learning and graduation are going to be successful goals and outcomes for students.

Watch the conversation continue here or below.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013
11 AM to 12:30 PM Pacific Time
(2 PM to 3:30 PM Eastern)

Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships was a four-year, $18 million initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in partnership with Blue Shield of California Foundation to target 11- to- 14-year-olds and rally entire communities to promote healthy relationships as the way to prevent teen dating violence and abuse. 11 diverse communities across the United States utilized a variety of collaborative strategies to engage youth, parents and other influencers in the effort to foster healthy relationship skills in young teens. Hear about lessons learned from the Start Strong experience.

Debbie Lee

Host: David Lee, CALCASA, PreventConnect

Presenters: 

• Debbie Lee, Senior Vice President, Futures Without Violence
• Lisa Sohn, Program Director, Futures Without Violence
• Nancy Carroll, Former Start Strong Wichita Project Director
• Paige Nelson, YouthINC Director, Regional Youth Adult Social Action Partnership (Former Start Strong Bridgeport Project Director)

Materials:

• Slides [PDF]
• Text chat [PDF]
• Recording [click here to access]

Lisa Sohn

Cost: Free

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss strategies to help teens build healthy relationships utilizing Start Strong’s approach to teen dating violence prevention: engaging school personnel, parents and students; and affecting community-wide social norms change.
2. Discuss lessons learned in creating healthy schools, including the role of in-school curriculum; importance of a model school policy and positive school climate.
3. Identify key components of a model school prevention policy that addresses teen dating violence and healthy relationship promotion.
4. Describe new data on dating violence behaviors and attitudes among middle school students.

Nancy Carroll

What is a Web Conference?
A web conference is an opportunity to attend an online presentation by watching a slides on your computer screen (using your internet connection) and hearing the presenters through your telephone. Our web conferences feature an opportunity to participate in an online question & answer sessions and live text chat between participants. If for some reason you are unable to join on your computer, you can download the presentation slides and listen to the presentation on your telephone.

Real-Time Captioning Available
Instructions for accessing real-time captioning will be provided after

Paige Nelson

registration.

Today I will be on the steps of the State Capitol in Sacramento, CA with CALCASA and California Legislators to recognize Denim Day California.  Thanks to the organizing by Denim Day USA,  people all over the country are wearing jeans today to say that we need to end sexual violence.

I am always inspired by the outpouring of support this day.  People are taking a stand against sexual violence.  Of course, in order to prevent sexual violence, our work has to go beyond Denim Day and go beyond work during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.  It takes actions every day and every month to transform our culture to become rape free.

I believe we can end rape.  It is an ambitious goal, but holding that vision motivates me to work each day. Today I wear jeans to end sexual violence.  And in a future day I will wear a jacket and tie to prevent sexual violence.  I see Denim Day as a potential catalyst for change.

What are you doing for Denim Day?

For the week of April 22-26, 2013 in observation of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s VetoViolence will host an “Ask the Expert” Facebook Forum on Sexual Violence.

CDC is committed to stopping sexual violence before it begins with prevention strategies based on the best available evidence.

In observance of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, CDC’s VetoViolence Facebook page has experts on sexual violence prevention available to answer questions on related topics. Also discuss your prevention efforts with others.

The CDC has many valuable resources about sexual violence such as the newest survey data from the National Sexual Violence and Intimate Partner Violence Survey. This is a great opportunity to continue discussing about how we will prevent sexual violence from happening in the first place.

Peer Learning Forum: 
Building support for community prevention: Going beyond curriculum

Tuesday, May 28
Thursday, June 13
Thursday, June 27
11AM to 12:30PM Pacific Time
(2 PM to 3:30 PM Eastern Time)

You will be registered for all three sessions (see below).
Participants in the Peer Learning Forum are asked to commit to attend all three sessions.

Prevention Institute’s Menaka Mohan and Annie Lyles
Introduce the 2013 Peer Learning Forums

Participation in the Peer Learning Forum is restricted to state and territorial RPE grantees and their local subgrantees, state DELTA FOCUS grantees and their local grantees, state/territorial sexual violence coalitions and state/territorial domestic violence coalitions.

Peer Learning Forums are PreventConnect’s newest online forum for sexual violence and domestic violence prevention practitioners to learn from each other to strengthen their prevention work. The Peer Learning Forum is designed to go deeper into prevention topics in a series of three web conferences with a targeted audience. Peer Learning Forums will include use of online resources such as podcasts and eLearning units.

There is growing understanding of the value of implementing population-level strategies to prevent sexual and domestic violence. Many preventionists find themselves in favor of implementing more population-based strategies that shift whole community norms, but without a guide on how to make that shift in their work and in their agency. All too often the field’s infrastructures and expertise have been built with a focus on individually-based strategies and there is little space to explore the benefit of work at the community level.

The first Peer Learning Forum will focus on opportunities to use the current infrastructure to build up to more community-level impact. We will also examine what we can learn from other fields and how to make the case for this shift. Together we can raise ideas, critique them and ask each other how we can go further. Join us as we expand the collective wisdom on promising approaches and pitfalls. Participants will engage in a candid conversation with

Host: David Lee and Ashley Maier, CALCASA, PreventConnect

Presenters: Menaka Mohan and Annie Lyles, Prevention Institute

Building support for community prevention: Going beyond curriculum

Materials:

• Slides [coming soon]
• Text chat [posted after session]
• Recording [posted after session]

Cost: Free

Learning Objectives?

1. Have engaged in a candid discussion about the challenges and opportunities of community prevention strategies.
   
2. Be able to provide examples of effective approaches and share useful tools from various communities.
3. Be able to identify potential indicators for measuring the impact of population-based prevention strategies.

What is a Peer Learning Forum?
Peer Learning Forums are PreventConnect’s newest online forum for sexual violence and domestic violence prevention practitioners to learn from each other to strengthen their prevention work. The Peer Learning Forum is designed to go deeper into prevention topics in a series of three web conferences with a targeted audience. During each Peer Learning Forum series, participants will use other online resources (such as podcasts or eLearning units) to discuss during subsequent sessions.

What is a Web Conference?
A web conference is an opportunity to attend an online presentation by watching a slides on your computer screen (using your internet connection) and hearing the presenters through your telephone. Our web conferences feature an opportunity to participate in an online question & answer sessions and live text chat between participants. If for some reason you are unable to join on your computer, you can download the presentation slides and listen to the presentation on your telephone.

Real-Time Captioning Available
Instructions for accessing real-time captioning will be provided after registration.

word cloud from healthy masculinity brainstorm. Created by Wordle.net

On Thurs, April 25 from 3 – 4 pm ET, during Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the second Healthy Masculinity Action Project Twitter Town Hall will focus on “Healthy Masculinity after Steubenville”. Both of the facilitators  are from Ohio: Katie Hanna is the Executive Director for the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence and attended the trial (listen to this PreventConnect podcast about her experience); Coach Ty is the author of Parenting a Winner.

Join this discussion on twitter using the hash tag #healthymasculinity.

Photo by NS Newsflash

Read the latest newsletter from PreventConnect here, featuring podcasts about lessons learned from Steubenville from the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence and SPARK Movement, as well as lessons learned fromt the 57th Commission on the Status of Women from Hollaback! Philly and Collective Action for Safe Spaces DC.

Full link address: http://www.preventconnect.org/mail/newsletter/2013-04-17.html 

Katie Hanna

In this interview, Katie Hanna, the Executive Director of the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, describes her experiences attending the Steubenville Rape trail last March and how she engaged the media to advance messages about preventing sexual violence. Everyday of the trial OAESV and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center released blogs that highlighted key messages, including that sexual violence can be prevented.

Rochelle Keyhan

Hollaback! Philly‘s Rochelle Keyhan, attended the United Nation’s 57th Commission on the Status of Women at the beginning of March. This year, the commission focused on the elimination of violence against women and girls.  In this podcast, she shares her experience during the commission and lessons learned.

Anya Josephs

Alice Wilder

Anya Josephs and Alice Wilder, Activists from SPARK Movement, a girl-fueled activist movement to demand an end to the sexualization of women and girls in media, describe a current campaign that promotes policy to prevent sexual violence. As the rape case in Steubenville unfolded, activists from SPARK Movement initiated the #EducateCoaches campaign with a petition demanding that the “National Federation of High School Associations, which offers annual required trainings for coaches in order for them to remain accredited, to partner with nationally recognized activist organizations to develop a course on sexual violence prevention for high school coaches.” 

Zosia Sztykowski

Zosia Sztykowski, Director of Community Outreach for Collective Action for Safe Spaces in D.C. attended the United Nation’s 57th Commission on the Status of Women at the beginning of March. This year, the commission focused on the elimination of violence against women and girls.  In this podcast, she shares her experience during the commission and lessons learned.

Thanks to Move to End Violence for this infographic.

The April 9, 2013 issue of the Palo Alto High School paper Verde focused on rape culture. Articles included titles such as You can’t tell me I wasn’t raped, Breaking the silence: We need to change the way we think about rape and  Taking it Seriously: Ever made a rape joke? This column is for you.

Mary Elizabeth Williams in Salon applauded the how these high school students covered issues about sexual violence better than the mainstream media:

In a bold and powerful series in the April 9 issue of Verde magazine, the students of Palo Alto High have made a dialogue for and by teenagers about the state of rape culture and contemporary adolescence – and they’ve given a lesson to parents and educators alike. It’s a fascinating work, and a model for exactly what far more high schools and colleges across the country should be doing right now. Confront the problem. Examine it. Talk about it.

Thanks to the Palo Alto High School students for this issue.

PreventConnect is pleased to announce its 2013 series of web conferences. As PreventConnect’s David Lee explains in the introductory video below, this year’s web conferences will focus on the theme, Preventing Sexual and Domestic Violence: Learning from the evidence of practice to create community action. Web conferences in this series look at lessons learned from local prevention initiatives, how to use multiple types of evidence to advance prevention work, and using gender transformative strategies to prevent sexual and domestic violence. Watch the message from David Lee below to learn more about the series.

Preventing Sexual and Domestic Violence:
Learning from the evidence of practice to create community action:

Materials and Recordings Now Available

• March 5: Findings on Victimization by Sexual Orientation: Implications for Preventing Sexual Violence and IPV in LBGT Communities (in collaboration with Division of Violence Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• March 12: Findings on Sexual Violence and IPV Victimization by Sexual Orientation: Implications for Policy: A Web Conference for State, Territorial, Tribal and National Key Stakeholders (in collaboration with Division of Violence Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• March 28: Prevention Works: Updating the Foundations of Sexual and Domestic Violence Prevention (in collaboration with Prevention Institute)
• Tuesday, April 23: Indicators of Change: Meaningful Ways to Measure Success in Preventing Sexual and Domestic Violence (in collaboration with Prevention Institute)
• Friday, May 10: Understanding Evidence: A Demonstration of CDC’s Interactive Tool to Support Evidence-Based Decision Making for Technical Assistance Providers (in collaboration with Division of Violence Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Wednesday, May 15: Start Strong: Lessons learned from a four-year initiative to promote healthy relationships and prevent teen dating violence (in collaboration with Futures without Violence)

Upcoming Web Conferences

• Thursday, June 20: Shifting Boundaries: Lessons Learned from Implementing a Sexual Violence Prevention Program (with Nan Stein, Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault)
• Tuesday, July 9: Primary Prevention in the context of a traumatized community (in collaboration with Prevention Institute)
• Tuesday, July 16: Understanding Evidence: An Interactive Web Resource for Evidence-Based Decision Making in Sexual Violence and Intimate Partner Violence Prevention (in collaboration with Division of Violence Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Tuesday, July 30: Gender Transformative Programs: Lessons Learned from HIV Prevention and other health program (with National Gender Council and EngenderHealth)
• Tuesday, September 17: Bystander Intervention: Continuing Discussion (in collaboration with Mentors in Violence Prevention)

Subscribe to PreventConnect’s newsletter to receive notice when registration for each web conference opens!

Stay Connected with the PreventConnect App for iPhone and Android.

April 7-13 is International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2013.  Join the over 140 organizations from over 20 countries who are taking action to end street harassment.  This year promises to build on the success from Anti-Street harassment Week 2012.

From people who shared stories about their first harassment experiences on twitter (#EndSHWeek) to sidewalk chalking in several cities to sharing images on social media, today many groups and people held important conversations about street harassment in our communities and with our friends.

The growing attention to ending street harassment demonstrates how grassroots activism is changing culture.  By demonstrating an intolerance toward actions on the street and encouraging people to be active bystanders to interrupt street harassment, we are also create new norms that can prevent sexual violence and domestic violence.

For an example of creative work check out the video “Things Men Say to Men Who Say Things to Women on the Streets” that won the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’ sNational Center on Injury Control and Prevention  Seeing My World through a Safer Lens Video Contest.

Friday, May 10, 2013
11 AM to 12:30 PM Pacific Time
(2 PM to 3:30 PM Eastern)

Understanding Evidence is a new, interactive web resource developed by CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention that supports public health practitioners in making evidence-informed decisions around violence prevention. The goal of evidence-based decision making is to bring a high standard of research evidence into the decision-making process while taking into account the contextual and experiential factors that influence decisions.

1. Define the multiple forms of evidence involved in evidence-based decision making
2. Identify standards of rigor for best available research evidence
3. Identify sources of and ways to collect best available research evidence, contextual evidence, and experiential evidence
4. Identify key stages and characteristics of an evidence-based decision making process

This web conference will provide an overview of the Understanding Evidence tool and will be focused on many violence prevention topics. The web conference will also provide real-world scenarios illustrating how practitioners, coalitions, and evaluators can use the tool to strengthen practice and evaluation of prevention strategies.

Helen Singer

Host: David Lee, CALCASA, PreventConnect

Presenters: 

• Helen Singer, MPH, Health Scientist, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Sally Thigpen, MPA, Health Scientist, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Natalie Wilkins, Ph.D., Behavioral Scientist, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Sally Thigpen

Materials:

• Understanding Evidence [click here to access]
• Slides [PDF]
• Text chat [PDF]
• Recording [click here to access]

Cost: Free

Learning Objectives?

1. Define the multiple forms of evidence involved in evidence-based decision making
   
2. Identify standards of rigor for best available research evidence
3. Identify sources of and ways to collect best available research evidence, contextual evidence, and experiential evidence
4. Identify key stages and characteristics of an evidence-based decision making process

Natalie Wilkins

Now available online, the Campus Violence Prevention Resource Guides were developed by the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA), with funding from the Grants to Reduce Violent Crimes Against Women on Campus Program through the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Violence Against Women Office. The guides are designed to help colleges and universities implement and maintain violence prevention educational programs and effective policies and procedures in response to violence against women on campus, including sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking, and to improve campus services for victims and survivors of campus violence.  Click on the links below to download the resource guides.

CALCASA Campus Violence Prevention Resource Guide
-deans
-faculty
-greeks
-health
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-law enforcement
-peer
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-resident
-student government

By Sari Lipsett

CALCASA hosted a webinar with SAFER Campus this past March for Campus Grantees to discuss how to effectively include students in campus policy development and revision. In the webinar, SAFER spoke about a national study they recently conducted of student anti-rape activists, Moving Beyond Blue Lights and Buddy Systems: A National Study of Student Anti-Rape Activists. Their findings have just been released publicly.

“This study demonstrates the critical role that students can play in combating campus sexual violence and underscores the need for increased resources and supports for students seeking to make change on their campuses.” said Dr. Emily Greytak, SAFER’s Evaluation Coordinator and primary researcher on the study. “At the same time, it illustrates that while some schools are ahead of the curve and are effectively addressing campus sexual violence, many colleges and universities continue to lag behind, failing to adequately address the issue and often ignoring students’ needs.”

To read more about the study and their findings, check out the links below:
Press release about the study
The first in a series of blog posts about the study
The full summary report

Today is Sexual Assault Awareness Month Day of Action. PreventConnect will join the National Sexual Violence Resource Center for its live Twitter chat at 11am Pacific Time (2pm Eastern Time)  for the first of #TweetAboutIt Tuesdays this month.  Today Dr. Janet Rosenzweig (@JanetRosenzweig), will lead a discussion promoting sexual health and safety. Use the hashtag #TweetAboutIt to take action to prevent sexual violence.

What action are you taking today to prevent sexual violence?