FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Friday, October 28, 2022 The Justice Department joins law enforcement agencies, victim service providers, survivors, victims, advocates and communities nationwide in recognizing the month of October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM). Domestic violence is serious and prevalent, and its impact does not stay within the home; it ripples out into workplaces, schools and entire communities. DVAM is a time to show support for those who are experiencing or have experienced domestic violence, and to give gratitude to first responders and victim service providers. DVAM encourages communities to bolster prevention efforts, improve responses to meet survivors’ needs, promote best practices and expand access to justice to all communities, especially for those who are underserved and marginalized. The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) is announcing nearly $70 million in fiscal year 2022 grant funding, including 39 awards totaling $29,916,258 under OVW’s Improving Criminal Justice Responses (ICJR) to Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, and Stalking Grant Program. The funding supports partnerships between victim service providers and the criminal justice system to implement effective and trauma-informed responses that protect survivors. The ICJR Program provides resources, training and service coordination for law enforcement, victim advocates, court personnel, […]
Faculty/Staff, Leadership/Administrators, Sexual Assault, Student Conduct Personnel, Victim Services/Advocates
Community Collaboration for Comprehensive Campus Sexual Violence Prevention
For colleges and universities to effectively address and prevent sexual violence, collaboration with community resources, including local rape crisis centers, is essential. This web conference addressed specific examples and research related to collaboration to strengthen sexual violence prevention on college campuses. Drawing on the recent report UC Speaks Up: An Assessment of the Climate for Sexual Violence Prevention, Education, and Response on Three University of California Campuses this web conference provides a foundation to understand the current needs and highlight how strong partnerships between community agencies and campus advocates can contribute to preventing sexual violence. In a panel discussion with college campuses and community Rape Crisis Centers, sexual violence preventionists and advocates provide unique examples of the strategies they implement to support the advancement of sexual violence prevention in their collective communities. Watch Webinar
LGBTQIA+ activism has been central to upending gender norms, and in so doing, challenged long held beliefs of dominance, power and control, and gendered identities. As a result, LGBTQIA+ communities are ideal allies with the anti-rape movement in the fight to end sexual violence. This web conference is for advocates who provide services, support, education, and so much more in the LGBTQIA+ community to co-create an understanding of how sexual violence can be eliminated through collaboration with our local rape crisis centers. Watch Webinar
Culture and community are an integral part of a victim/survivor’s support system following a sexually violent experience, and spirituality can be an essential part of someone’s healing process. While it’s important to acknowledge that many survivors do not choose to lean into faith to cope with trauma, those who do greatly benefit from a strong relationship between sexual assault providers and spiritual healers. Faith traditions and communities are diverse and so is how they approach addressing sexual violence within their communities. It is important for spiritual leaders to understand the impact of sexual assault on the people they support and to feel comfortable joining and activating the survivors’ support networks, which often necessitates the awareness of local resources. Co-facilitated with Sikh Family Center, this web conference is for faith-based organizations and advocates who are interested in expanding their tools, offering community-based support, and joining the anti-sexual violence movement in disrupting and preventing sexual violence. Watch Webinar
Health Professionals, Law Enforcement, Leadership/Administrators, Sexual Assault, Victim Services/Advocates
Campus-Community Partnerships: Coordinating a Comprehensive Trauma-Informed Response to Sexual Violence
Sexual violence on college and university campuses is a complex issue requiring collaboration and integrated approaches to support survivors. Approaches that engage the entire community in addressing sexual assault on campus are essential. Partnerships between various campus programs and departments and community-based resources help ensure access for members of the college community, including those who have experienced sexual violence, to much needed resources, strengthen the accountability of institutions to the community, increase knowledge about the impact of sexual assault on campus, and link community-based advocacy resources with campuses. This web conference is for campus administrators and advocates interested in expanding their partnerships to support survivors and address sexual violence both on and off campus. Watch Webinar
In this listening session, participants shared their insights and recommendations on what should be included in a National Action Plan. Participants will have the opportunity to provide input on a series of questions about national priorities to address all forms of gender-based violence. Watch Webinar
Stalking is a prevalent, dangerous, and often misunderstood on campuses. This web conference session will explore the dynamics of stalking on college campuses, focusing on the highly contextual nature by discussing common tactics used by offenders, stalking’s co-occurrence with intimate partner and sexual violence, as well as tools to plan for victim safety and hold people accountable. Watch Webinar
Sexual assault survivors have long desired alternatives to the criminal justice system which often leaves them feeling unheard. Accountability for those who do harm is the core of what survivors want. The Restorative Justice approach provides survivors with an alternative justice process that depends on an acknowledgement of harm from the perpetrator from the beginning. It facilitates communities coming together for collective solutions to address sexual violence. Spanish recording: https://youtu.be/I362ZrPmUec Watch Webinar
Campus athletes often hold social power and influence on campuses and are a key audience to preventing sexual violence on college campuses. Engaging student-athletes and campus athletic staff brings its own unique partnership challenges. Join VALOR on this web conference to learn about current resources and policy for reaching student-athletes for sexual violence prevention and response. Watch Webinar
Since the 2000 passing of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), many organizations who previously had little or no interest in forced labor and who had otherwise held no anti-oppression principles realized the value of the anti-trafficking momentum to further their own agendas. Because of this, many anti-trafficking organizations claiming values of survivor-centered, trauma-informed, and empowerment-based programming engaged in coercive intervention and other strategies that did not center the consent and bodily autonomy of survivors. Additionally, many components of these strategies rely on policing tactics that place people from marginalized communities (including trans people, immigrants, and BIPOC) at increased risk of harm through engagement with the criminal justice system, target vulnerable sex workers, and do not address the root causes that leave people in the sex trades without access to safety and support. “End Demand” has been a popular part of the anti-trafficking narrative since it’s early days, and “Demand Reduction” prioritized as a “prevention” strategy. Meanwhile, demand reduction has been criticized by labor rights organizers as antithetical to the labor organizing practices that can keep workers safe (working together, increased screening, organizing for safety), and by anti-trafficking advocates for its incongruence with what is shown to reduce exploitation in […]