The Resource The National Sexual Violence Resource Center Newsletter - Spring 2020 Cover image: An arrow pointing upward with the words "Building Corporate Courage" inside it. CONTACT US The National Sexual Violence Resource Center invites your comments: The Resource 2101 N Front Street Governor’s Plaza North, Building #2 Harrisburg, PA 17110 Toll free: 877-739-3895 Fax: 717-909-0714 TTY: 717-909-0715 Email: resources@nsvrc.org Online: www.nsvrc.org Communications Department Laura Palumbo, Communications Director MEGAN THOMAS, Communications Specialist, Editor of The Resource SUSAN SULLIVAN, Prevention Campaign Specialist EMILY BIGGER, Graphic Design Specialist CHAD SNIFFEN, Online Resource Coordinator LEADERSHIP Karen Baker, CEO Yolanda Edrington, NSVRC Director ADVISORY COUNCIL Karen Baker, Harrisburg, PA Susan Chasson, Provo, UT Stephanie A. Dunson, Atlanta, GA Jessica Grzywacz, Lansing, MI Nancy Hoffman, Fairmont, WV Patrick Lemmon, Portland, OR Julie Lindahl, DuPont, WA Sarah McMahon, New Brunswick, NJ Kelly Parsley, Helena, MT Corrine Sanchez, Santa Cruz, NM Karen Webb, New Orleans, LA Brandi Woods-Littlejohn, Oklahoma City, OK Mira Yusef, Des Moines, IA This publication was supported by the Grant or Cooperative Agreement Number 1 NUF2CE002510-01-00, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services. ABOUT THE COVER How can organizations in the anti-sexual violence field build partnerships with outside corporations to help them end sexual harassment, abuse, and assault? We spoke with two programs to learn more about what it mens to buidl corporate courage. Read more on page 4. CONTRIBUTORS Sarah Prout Rennie, JD, is Executive Director for the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence. Ms. Rennie has been an attorney for over twenty years and has extensive experience serving survivors. Ms. Rennie has been a trainer for the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards on sexual assault and domestic violence since 2009, and is also a Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers certified trainer on elder abuse. She is the author of numerous articles that have been included in the Michigan Family Law Journal on human trafficking, meeting the needs of rural LGBT survivors, elder abuse, and child custody and domestic violence. Ms. Rennie’s work on economic justice has also been published in the Michigan State Bar Journal a nd the Management Information Exchange Journal, and her article on the fundamental right to parent was featured in the Wayne State Law Review, fall 2010. Her work with trauma-informed care of survivors of violence in the criminal justice system has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Detroit News, and on ABC News. Lisa Winchell-Caldwell is the Deputy Director at the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence (MCEDSV). She brings more than twenty years of experience in the domestic and sexual violence fields. Her areas of expertise include violence prevention, domestic and sexual violence survivor services, housing and homelessness, public policy, grant writing and project management, economic justice, and engaging and developing youth leadership. Ms. Winchell-Caldwell has led several national demonstration projects on the prevention of domestic and sexual violence during her thirteen years at MCEDSV and has implemented prevention and intervention services for survivors for two decades. She has worked closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on researching and implementing primary prevention best practices for almost ten years. She has been fortunate during her time in the field to be a part of various prevention collaboratives including adolescent health/school-based health centers, maternal and child health, school districts, neighborhood centers, law enforcement, college campuses, youth-serving non-profits, sports teams, and other diverse partners. WANT TO WRITE FOR THE RESOURCE? We’re always looking for story ideas! If you’re interested in sharing the great work your local program or coalition is doing, let us know: Email us your pitch at resources@nsvrc.org. Reach out to us on Twitter or Facebook @NSVRC Or give us a call at 877-739-3895 DIRECTOR'S VIEWPOINT YOLANDA EDRINGTON, NSVRC DIRECTOR We are facing a time of uncertainty. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the world has changed in many significant ways in the past few weeks. Since this issue of The Resource went to print, we’ve seen how COVID-19 continues to rapidly impact our work and society. As is the nature of print publications, much of this issue’s content was planned months in advance, but we are trying to keep up with the situation and share related resources in real time through our online channels. We are all in this together as we live and learn through this public health crisis. Although the pace of change in our world and movement can feel impossible to keep up with, this issue of The Resource focuses on a theme that is both timely and ongoing – expanding beyond what has been done before. The cover story, “Building Corporate Courage,” showcases what it can look like when corporations take on the challenging and courageous work of ending sexual harassment and abuse. In the article, two programs share their successes and lessons learned from creating and maintaining partnerships with corporations and expanding beyond the field. This issue also highlights how our partners at RALIANCE have grown and continue to take bold steps — such as their newly launched resource center, RALIANCE Business, which is dedicated to helping companies create safer workplaces. Expansion and growth are also themes of the Coalition Spotlight, where the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence offers insight on using an anti-oppression framework to overcome barriers to community engagement and maximize inclusion. Our community voices also weigh in on this topic to tell us how they are building partnerships and meaningful connections with other community organizations. This issue’s milestone looks at how the conversation on prevention has evolved in the fifteen years since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed the foundational resource Beginning the Dialogue. They recently released the updated Continuing the Dialogue, reflecting on the past and looking forward with examples of how programs are innovating and expanding prevention work. From podcasts and popular culture to our must-read selections from NSVRC’s library, this issue seeks to bring you tools and ideas to inspire growth. Whether reaching more people through partnerships with corporations or making services more accessible, innovation requires expanding beyond what our field has historically done. As our readers and community, we invite you to share your stories, success, and challenges with us. This is how we will all continue to grow. In partnership, Yolanda Edrington (Image: Three arrows pointing upward. The first one says "Building," the second "Corporate," and the third "Courage.") Building corporate courage By Megan Thomas • National Sexual Violence Resource Center What does it look like for a corporation to courageously work to end sexual harassment and abuse? At the 2019 National Sexual Assault Conference, one of the plenary sessions focused on answering this exact question. The panel discussion featured Tina Tchen, President and CEO of Time’s Up; Tony West, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer at Uber; and Monika Johnson Hostler, a managing partner of RALIANCE. During their conversation, the panelists touched on the need for corporations to address and prevent sexual harassment and assault — the kind of adjustment that can only come from a commitment to change. In order to see widespread social change, prevention has to reach every part of our communities — and that means corporations must be part of the solution. But what does this look like in practice? And how can organizations in the anti-sexual violence movement encourage companies to be courageous? Putting partnerships like these into practice are Hollaback! and the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault (MOCSA). Both are RALIANCE impact grantees who partnered with outside organizations to create change. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Hollaback! has been working with three sporting organizations to deliver and evaluate bystander intervention trainings. MOCSA, out of Kansas City, Missouri, partnered with United Soccer Coaches, a network of 30,000 coaches nationwide, to help their members better understand prevention through an e-learning module. Both organizations have seen successes and learned valuable lessons about creating and maintaining partnerships beyond the field. Find Hollaback! online: www.ihollaback.org Twitter and Facebook: @ihollaback Find MOCSA online: www.mocsa.org Twitter and Facebook: @MOCSAkc GETTING BUY-IN Initially, Emily May, co-founder and Executive Director of Hollaback!, explained that organizations and workplaces did not come to them for help — and when they did, they claimed not to see harassment in their spaces. That has since changed — and they’re now getting tremendous amounts of outreach. Why this huge shift? “One thousand percent Me Too,” said Emily. The outpouring of personal stories propelled change, she said, and there is an urgency now for everyone — from individuals to corporations — to address the issues of sexual harassment and assault. Similarly, MOCSA found that the timing was perfect for a collaboration with United Soccer Coaches. The various sexual assault and abuse scandals happening in athletics recently helped spur United Soccer Coaches’ desire for a partner with expertise in prevention. MOCSA leveraged this need in reinforcing why a partnership would be beneficial for them and their members. Director of Education Melanie Austin explained that she tries to make it as easy as possible to start an initial conversation with a potential partner, often by asking for in-person meetings at the organization’s office to literally get in the door. For Hollaback!, getting buy-in from sports organizations required strategic conversations illustrating that sexual harassment and assault existed in their organizations. Senior Trainer Nicole Stapleton would provide examples of seeing harassment at yoga studios and ask pointed questions like, “Have you ever seen someone leaving the class talking to someone they don’t know, and the other person looks uncomfortable? Have people at the front desk been verbally harassed by clients?” Naming these incidents as harassment helped organizations see that it was an issue happening within their walls, encouraging them to collaborate. MAKING THE PARTNERSHIP WORK The corporate world and the non-profit world are vastly different, so staying flexible is key to making partnerships work. For example, while talking with United Soccer Coaches, MOCSA had a conversation with staff members on risk and liability as a reason for coaches to be invested in this work. But from a prevention standpoint, Melanie explained, people shouldn’t be motivated by risk and liability alone, but by creating safe environments and looking out for each other. This differing perspective led to an interesting discussion on values. “You don’t know what people are coming into the presentation with,” Melanie said, so she stressed always meeting people where they are, just as victim service providers would with a survivor. Hollaback! leaned into shared values when connecting with outside organizations. They acknowledged how sports activities for adults like yoga and Pilates better people’s lives, and that providing bystander intervention training gives more tools for instructors to ensure the participants feel safe, respected, and able to reach their fullest potential. MEASURING SUCCESS One of the greatest measures of success in a collaboration is continued partnership, and MOCSA has definitely seen that. They are continuing to work with United Soccer Coaches, making plans to present to 14,000-15,000 attendees at the organization’s annual convention, and the two are also investigating further opportunities to work together. One of the positive signs of continued partnership that Melanie brought up is that even though United Soccer Coaches is no longer a paid consultant, they still want to continue working with MOCSA. Hollaback! has also seen great success, as measured by post-tests following their bystander intervention training. A majority (97%) of people left the training with the confidence that they would know how to intervene if they saw harassment happening. Hollaback! has seen that participants also want to talk more about issues like responsibility and accountability. After establishing a scale of unacceptable workplace behavior, the next question is sometimes, “What if I’m the one causing harm?” Nicole explained that participants may get stuck on the “shame trampoline” — getting so caught up in emotions that they keep bouncing and bouncing but can’t fundamentally change. Hollaback! tries to focus instead on helping people off the shame trampoline and asking, “How do we co-create an environment we can all feel good about entering?” MOVING FORWARD “If you don’t include certain people at the table, they’ll never get a chance to eat,” said Nicole. Corporations are part of our culture, she explained, so they’re part of what needs to change. It’s this mindset — that we’re all in it together, and that movement growth means expansion — that’s at the heart of building corporate courage. As Emily mentioned, the Me Too movement means now is the perfect time to engage corporations, as their eyes are being opened to the realities of sexual harassment within their organizations. The broad kind of culture shift the anti-sexual assault movement is seeking can’t happen in a vacuum, so building corporate courage means holding corporations accountable and guiding them through the process of creating safer, more respectful workplaces. Want to learn more? RALIANCE Business is a newly launched resource center dedicated to helping companies create safer workplaces. Visit www.raliance.org/business COMMUNITY VOICES For every issue of The Resource, we reach out to you, our partners and community members, to learn more about your work in the movement. We asked: How do you build partnerships with other community organizations? "Active listening, know your audience, and depending on the community, exercise humility." -Alma Mann "Get out there!" -Heidi Huff "Collaborate! Listen!" -Virginia Sweetser "Start with the people I know. Show up for events, especially the ones that don’t benefit our org." -Jaycee "Share my passion of being a servant/leader and share the statistics. Validating others and hearing their truths." -Angela Henderson BE A FEATURED VOICE! We want to hear your response to our next Community Voices question: What is one thing you want everyone to know about ending sexual violence? Tweet your answer to @NSVRC or email resources@nsvrc.org using the subject line “Community Voices.” COALITION SPOTLIGHT IN MICHIGAN Addressing the whole: Prevention and intervention By Sarah Prout Rennie & Lisa Winchell-Caldwell Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence The Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence (MCEDSV) has a long history of deeply thoughtful prevention work starting with our core commitment to social change and expanding into primary prevention efforts. In 2013, MCEDSV’s prevention efforts underwent some significant alterations including an intentional realignment with the field’s intervention and systems change work. An essential part of this adjustment was to incorporate Kimberlé Crenshaw’s work on intersectionality into every element of our prevention efforts, focusing in particular on how a layering of marginalized intersections in one person would create significant barriers to engagement in our member programs. Many of the challenges to engagement due to a multiplicity of marginalized identities were the same regardless of whether we were discussing prevention programming or intervention services, including feeling as though the services being offered were appropriate, relevant, and inclusive to the person and their community. As we began to change the core focus of our work from providing templates, premade curricula, and sample best practices to supporting our membership in a critical thinking process oriented to community engagement and maximizing inclusion, we began to see not only our intended outcome of more inclusive prevention efforts but also a faster shift toward community-level prevention strategies. In 2015, MCEDSV underwent a major change in leadership with a transition in both our Executive Director and Deputy Director Positions occurring at the same time. Sarah Prout Rennie, an attorney and long-term interventionist with over twenty years’ experience in serving survivors, was named our Executive Director, and Lisa Winchell-Caldwell, a community organizer with a history of both direct survivor services and significant prevention experience, was named our Deputy Director. (Image of Sarah Prout Rennie, Monica McLaughlin, and Lisa Winchell-Caldwell at Sarah and Lisa's first collaborative effort.) (Image: Considerations for Intersectionality Diagram adapted from the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women used in all MCEDSV trainings and core products. Diagram shows an illustration of a stick person connected to the following considerations: Occupation, education, race, ethnicity, religion, language, heritage/history, immigration status, gender, family status, income, Native America/First Nations, ability, feographic location, age, and sexuality.) As part of the leadership transition, Sarah identified the further integration of MCEDSV’s prevention and intervention efforts as a primary goal. In collaboration with staff and board, MCEDSV produced a guiding framework that everything created or promoted by our team would be survivor-centered, trauma-informed, and intersectional. This design cemented a rich legacy of work produced from different staff and funding streams at MCEDSV into a requirement for all staff and projects. It supported the expansion of our prevention team and pushed them to constantly consider the critical nature of survivor voices in prevention efforts, and it supported the expansion of our training and technical assistance team while keeping them grounded in our perspectives on building models that consider the needs of survivors’ truly complex identities. Key within this integrated approach to our work is a fundamental recognition that all oppression is interconnected and that effective intervention and prevention work must be guided by efforts to end all oppression. To this end, MCEDSV’s work is intended to prevent violence against and provide services for the most marginalized survivors. BUILDING FORWARD As MCEDSV moved forward with integrating all of our work, we also began an intensive internal process, as truly embracing intersectionality meant not only outward facing training, but internal representation. While MCEDSV knows more work has to be done, we have intentionally worked to hire an intersectional staff. This has included changing the language used in position postings, the design of some positions, where positions are posted, the interview teams, the hiring process, and addressing fundamental pay equity and economic justice issues. By 2019, MCEDSV is proud to share a staff composition, based on unsolicited self-reporting, that is 18% persons with a disability, 41% LGBTQ, and 45% persons of color. This intentional representation is critical to undertaking intersectional work; absent it, there is no way to “know what we don’t know” about each other and our learned assumptions on the basis of privilege. We have continued to redesign our internal processes to ensure that the staff hired are able to meaningfully contribute to every part of our work and that their experiences, strengths, and resiliencies are all incorporated into our survivor services, trainings, technical assistance, and products. It has been a lengthy process that has had, and continues to have, many missteps, but has had the ultimate benefit of producing work from a collaborative, team-based model. The production of this work with such a unique, talented, and multifaceted staff has led to breaking several existing Coalition records and almost tripling our budget. (Image: UMOJA logo. A large letter U against a purple squaree. Underneath are the words: Uniting and Mobilizing Opportunities for Justice and Access.") Our second component of our integration was to further develop our internal reflective process, including our own accountability mechanisms, and to expand the support that is available to individuals with marginalized identities doing this work in the field. UMOJA, an internal anti-oppression workgroup, is comprised primarily of persons of color and is designed to provide a voice to maintain an inclusive, accountable organizational structure and process at MCEDSV. UMOJA reviews bylaws, policies, and work products and has a non-voting seat on the MCEDSV Board of Directors to maintain representation in and engagement with our institutional framework. UMOJA’s mission statement is as follows: • Question and assess institutional barriers within our movement that harm or ignore less privileged people and impede their pathways to success. • Building opportunities for outreach, mentorship, sponsorship, and guidance. • Form social connections, in-person and through technology, to be present and available, to build community, and to promote cohesion in areas of isolation. • Seek and provide education to fill gaps in our professional education. • Promote appropriate allyship. • Examine policy, behaviors, language, and systems within our Coalition to address points of privilege to support those who are oppressed through multiple intersections of their identity. UMOJA is a Kiswahii word meaning unity and that is the focus of their equity work. They meet monthly within the organization and hold monthly community care times for our member programs. These meetings happen absent any executive leadership of the Coalition so that challenging discussion can be had freely and then integrated in the way the members of UMOJA deem most beneficial to their efforts. The group has a shared leadership model and are working to build a strong model for our field of how to manage shared leadership, responsibility, and decision making across levels of experience and with deeply diverse backgrounds and approaches to the work. They have produced several resources for our member programs since they’ve begun their work including an ongoing outreach newsletter, blog posts, and an excellent analysis of the existing research on pay equity and marginalized identities. This led to a position paper produced by UMOJA and adopted by MCEDSV leadership on the essential nature of living our economic justice work through several considerations around hiring, starting wage, salary structure, and overall pay equity. In addition to training on intersectionality and creating UMOJA, MCEDSV’s third approach to integrating intervention and prevention has been through the creation of a yearly emerging leaders cohort. Chosen cohort attendees’ mileage and overnight costs are paid for by MCEDSV, and all trainings provided as part of the cohort are free. Comprised of 25 individuals within the movement, 17 of which are chosen by UMOJA, these leaders are selected based on both their excellence of work within their member programs or communities and their experiences of marginalization and rurality. The cohort is taught a series of soft and concrete skills including ethical decision making, conflict management, supervision, allyship, financial compliance, and grant writing. This work includes supporting emerging leader participants in developing their own methods for dealing with secondary trauma, marginalization, and vulnerability within the context of leadership. We feel it is essential for our movement that our leaders understand how accountability, allyship, vulnerability, survivor-centeredness, and other movement values integrate with the concrete tasks of leading programs that serve survivors and that address domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking within our communities. (Image: MCEDSV's intial emerging leaders cohort at their first in-person training in May 2018.) Michigan has seen continued, sustained, and sometimes large-scale turnover of our executive director positions at member programs, and finding candidates who understand survivors and can implement this work in a trauma-informed and intersectional way has been difficult in many communities. Now in its second year, the cohort has already had six graduates promoted or accepted for a more advanced position within the movement as a result of the emerging leaders project. Moreover, it is an investment in intersectionality and leadership toward a more representative, impactful, and survivor-centered movement. The next initiative of MCEDSV’s integration effort was designed to work alongside emerging leaders to slow the tide of executive director turnover and to ensure quality supports to executive directors in their efforts to implement sustainable, inclusive, impactful programming. We have developed a non-profit management program, led by an experienced former community-based program executive director and supported by a team of staff who have all worked in direct service, community-based programs. The goals of this project are to provide new EDs with additional support in understanding everything from the history of their programs to the nature of their funding streams and to reduce isolation and burnout amongst longer term executive directors. This includes developing trainings specifically to meet their needs, providing resources and sample policies curated to their challenges, and engaging in ongoing TA plans for their unique program or situation. Providing more supports and resources for our existing directors improves their ability to implement strong, survivor-centered inclusive programs and it makes EDs more comfortable in their systems change, advocacy, and prevention efforts. It also creates more room for them to mentor, support, and accept the input of emerging leaders, both from our cohort and not. The final component of our integration plan is the promotion of economic justice in all of our work. This promotion, like intersectionality, is both inward and outward facing. Over the past few years, we have increased wages for all staff, put in place a wage scale that weighs life experience in a multitude of ways and equally alongside more traditional measures such as education, and implemented recommendations from the position paper UMOJA has produced. In addition, we have revised our internal polices to look at other elements of economic justice including children in the workplace, workplace flexibility, extended emergency leave, sabbaticals, 401k and benefit compensation to name a few. Externally facing, we have worked with our Division of Victims services to do a statewide wage assessment for advocates and other individuals working in communitybased programs. MCEDSV has also worked for changes on policies for paid family leave and fair minimum wage. We have also added an analysis on economic justice to our review of all prevention strategies, and we have developed proposed solves for prevention elements that are not considerate of the impact of economic injustice on a community. In Detroit and Dearborn, we have a comprehensive community organizing strategy on pay equity for women as part of a prevention demonstration project. In direct service intervention, MCEDSV has created the Domestic Violence Recovery Loan Project to provide non-emergency loans up to $1300 for survivors — and MCEDSV makes one payment of the loan for the survivor, so it is particularly good for credit repair. We also provide trainings specifically to address the practical realities of serving survivors in poverty with an emphasis on including anti-poverty work in communitybased programs systems change work. All of our trainings and many of our resources have been revised to include sections that identify the challenges presented when poverty appears amongst the intersections facing a survivor and providing practical guidance for our field on our role in addressing this issue. The key takeaway from MCEDSV’s comprehensive plan is the intentional philosophical framework that informs all of the Coalition’s work. Key to all movement building work in Michigan is an intersectional, survivorcentered, and trauma-informed lens with an emphasis on representation, leadership, and economic justice. This marriage of concepts has allowed Michigan to leverage all of our work and grow our movement more quickly while ensuring that prevention and intervention are held with equal importance within our work. Visit MCEDSV online: www.mcedsv.org www.mcedsv.org/umoja Twitter and Facebook: @mcedsv POP CULTURE CORNER The world of podcasts meets the anti-sexual violence movement By NSVRC Staff (Image: Illustration of a podcast microphone and sound waves) Perhaps no form of media has exploded in recent years like podcasts. They span genres and forms, covering content like pop culture, comedy, true crime, politics, and so much more. In the era of #MeToo, we’re seeing podcasts that educate, inform, and advocate around sexual assault and abuse. As investigative journalism has been at the heart of breaking many high-profile stories of abuse, it only makes sense that podcasts would allow journalists to take an even deeper dive. This medium allows reporters to examine unanswered questions, share survivors’ voices, and consider the broader cultural context of stories that dominated the headlines. If you’re a podcast listener, here are some recommendations you may want to add to your feed. BREAKDOWN (2017) The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s award-winning investigative series “Doctors & Sex Abuse” gets the podcast treatment in Breakdown. This series focuses on the abuses of one specific doctor, charting his career and the sexual abuse allegations that followed him up until his conviction. Listen to Breakdown at bit.ly/BreakdownPodcast COSBY UNRAVELED (2017-2018) This NPR podcast takes a close look at Bill Cosby’s two criminal trials – the first in 2017, which ended in a mistrial, and the second in 2018 that resulted in his conviction. Each episode centers on a different element of the case or moment in the trial, covering everything from Andrea Constand’s testimony to the jury’s understanding of consent. Listen to Cosby Unraveled at bit.ly/CosbyUnraveledPodcast BELIEVED (2018) In late 2018, NPR set out to answer some of the lingering questions around the abuse perpetrated by former doctor Larry Nassar. How did he get away with abuse for so long? How did he manipulate and groom everyone around him? And how did he finally get caught? Believed features the victims’ voices and stories, all culminating in the question, “What comes next for survivors?” Listen to Believed at bit.ly/BelievedPodcast IN THE DARK (2018) The first season of In the Dark traces the facts behind the abduction of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling, including the 27-year-long investigation, the wide-ranging impact of the case, and the truth behind what happened to him. What makes this podcast unique is the way reporter Madeleine Baran focuses on what went wrong during the case — and why it took law enforcement so long to find Jacob Wetterling’s killer. Listen to In the Dark at bit.ly/IntheDarkPodcast THE BAND PLAYED ON (2019) This series shares a history of sexual abuse at an Ottawa high school and the subsequent cover-up that allowed three teachers to abuse dozens of students over the course of many years. Survivors share their firsthand accounts, and although many reported what happened to them, this podcast reveals a pattern of inaction by school administrators. Listen to The Band Played On at bit.ly/TheBandPlayedOnPodcast DELIVER US (2019) Producer and practicing Catholic Maggi Van Dorn hosts this look at the widespread child sexual abuse happening within the Catholic Church. Van Dorn speaks with experts and survivors on healing the harms caused and preventing further abuse. Deliver Us features survivor stories as well as discussions about what justice and accountability look like. Listen to Deliver Us at bit.ly/DeliverUsPodcast BROKEN: JEFFREY EPSTEIN (2019) Hosted by The New Yorker journalist Ariel Levy, Broken delves into the world of how financier Jeffrey Epstein carried out his abuse of underage girls, including his network of accomplices and the complicit systems in which he operated. Listen to Broken: Jeffrey Epstein at bit.ly/BrokenPodcast Podcasts open up the opportunity to have richer conversations and an insight into what the general public is learning about sexual assault and the experiences of survivors. In many ways, the work of our field is being represented, even when we are not the storytellers. This adds a new dimension to our work as the broader culture becomes more invested in conversations around things like accountability, justice, and healing. But when we’re not the ones telling the story — or when survivors are not telling their own stories — is there a way the general public can have an opportunity to hear from voices within the movement? How can we connect the prevention field and general media like podcasts? We’d love to hear from you on Twitter @NSVRC or by email at resources@nsvrc.org A CONVERSATION with PREVENTCONNECT Many in the anti-sexual violence field are probably familiar with the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA)’s online hub PreventConnect as one of the seminal sources of online training tools, including podcasts. We talked with Ashleigh Klein- Jimenez and Tori VandeLinde from PreventConnect about their podcast journey: Why did PreventConnect start making podcasts? Podcasts have been a great way for PreventConnect to deliver new research and examples from the field in small, digestible conversations. Our podcasts are each around 20 minutes long, so busy prevention practitioners can listen in and gain knowledge and resources in a shorter time than is required for a traditional training or web conference. PreventConnect has always been a place for conversation, and podcasts offer a unique format to expand and dig deeper on the issues that prevention practitioners are interested in. How have PreventConnect’s podcasts evolved over the years? There are over 350 podcasts archived on PreventConnect’s website, starting with PreventConnect’s first podcast in 2007. PreventConnect podcasts aim to take the pulse of sexual and intimate partner violence prevention; explore new research, ideas, and practices in prevention; and provide an opportunity to expand prevention conversations. PreventConnect podcasts have evolved as the prevention field and conversations about preventing sexual and intimate partner violence have evolved. PreventConnect podcasts feature innovative work from the field and in multiple settings, like campuses, schools, communities, bars and alcohol-serving establishments, and research settings, among others. New resources are often featured on PreventConnect podcasts, most recently, the CDC’s Continuing the Dialogue resource. Conversations on PreventConnect podcasts often connect to other movements, too. These include connections to human trafficking, serving incarcerated youth, anti-oppression, street harassment, youth organizing and leadership, preventing child sexual abuse, arts-based approaches, and others. Find them online at: preventconnect.org/podcast MILESTONE Fifteen years of prevention By NSVRC Staff Over the past fifteen years, the national landscape has shifted significantly when it comes to how the general public and professionals understand the issue of sexual assault. Only recently — in what has come to be called the #MeToo era — have sexual harassment, abuse, and assault become regular fixtures of news coverage and public debate. Before then, there was a general awareness about sexual assault, but a deeper dialogue and understanding was missing. That’s why, in 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed the foundational resource, Sexual Violence Prevention: Beginning the Dialogue. At the time, the CDC had been repeatedly asked for a working definition of primary prevention — that is, preventing sexual assault and abuse before they happen. This is a question familiar to many people working to prevent sexual violence. This resource delivered on that need, using the analogy of a fisherman “moving upstream” after several people have been swept into a river in order to determine why it kept happening. This story illustrates how sexual harassment, assault, and abuse can be prevented in the same way: By figuring out what the contributing factors are, it is possible to change the situation. Beginning the Dialogue also demystified the public health approach to prevention, which looks at solutions at different levels of influence: individual, relationship, community, and society. The resource serves as an introduction to the world of primary prevention, breaking down the basic elements of prevention and encouraging preventionists to consider when to intervene, what to focus on, and who their efforts are for. We all know that beginning the conversation is just that — the beginning — and that in order to make meaningful change, that dialogue must continue. So in July 2019, fifteen years after Beginning the Dialogue, the CDC released their follow-up and update, Continuing the Dialogue: Learning from the Past and Looking to the Future of Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence Prevention. What’s new in this resource? It’s imbued with examples of current prevention efforts in the field, demonstrating all the ways prevention is happening. Continuing the Dialogue also discusses prevention at the community and society levels as the field works to expand prevention work beyond the individual level. Other topics in this updated version include intersectionality, or how an individual’s race, class, gender, sexuality, and other factors intersect and interact, and social determinants of health, or the conditions that impact a person’s overall health. In addition to these definitions, the resource provides examples of how communities can include intersectionality and its impact on social determinants of health into their considerations. One of the reasons Continuing the Dialogue is so valuable is because it reflects shifts in the broader cultural context around prevention since 2004. The viral hashtag #MeToo and the subsequent media attention is a recent example of a huge change in public discourse around sexual harassment and assault, but we’ve seen foundational changes taking place even before that. In the years since Beginning the Dialogue helped kick start conversations about prevention, we’ve seen less focus on risk reduction and more talk about primary prevention — even if it’s not necessarily in those words. College and university campaigns about bystander intervention are just one example of how prevention has taken hold. Continuing the Dialogue brings up the importance of building bridges between prevention and other health and social issues — such as health care, housing, and pay inequity — a conversation that has also started to grow in recent years. If the last fifteen years are any indication, the anti-sexual violence field and general public have come a long way in their understanding of prevention, and the next fifteen years are sure to bring more nuanced conversations, new tools and resources, and many more innovative ways to prevent sexual assault and abuse. READ THEM ONLINE: bit.ly/BeginningtheDialogue bit.ly/ContinuingTheDialogue Want to hear from the authors of Continuing the Dialogue? Check out this PreventConnect podcast: bit.ly/ContinuingPodcast RALIANCE RALIANCE’s team and mission grow By NSVRC Staff Since its start in 2016, RALIANCE has been a national voice on a myriad of issues related to sexual violence — advocacy, research, policy, prevention, innovation, and more. RALIANCE builds on the expertise of the three leading organizations that founded it — the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. And now, RALIANCE has a new team at the helm, ready to embark on new projects in the coming years. In November 2019, longtime advocate and expert Ebony Tucker was named RALIANCE’s Executive Director. Previously RALIANCE’s Advocacy Director, Tucker has also served as the Executive Director of the Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault. She was also a civil rights attorney for the Florida Commission on Human Relations, and she earned her Juris Doctor from the Florida State University College of Law in 2005. In her new role at RALIANCE, Tucker will focus on the organization’s consulting practice, which is aimed at companies and organizations looking to reduce sexual harassment, misconduct, and assault in the workplace. “Nothing is more critical than our mission of creating environments free from sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse,” she said of RALIANCE’s focus on workplace consulting. Shortly after Tucker became Executive Director, RALIANCE brought on another team member: S. Renee Smith, who will serve as Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer. Smith brings more than 20 years of experience in leadership and brand development. She’s a workplace expert who has worked with top industry leaders, as well as an author, speaker, and advocate for equal education opportunities. “Sexual misconduct, harassment, and assault and how we respond to incidents are among the most urgent and pressing challenges of our time,” she said. In this new role, Smith will advance RALIANCE’s efforts to connect with business executives and leaders. With one foot in the corporate world and one in the advocacy world, Smith is invaluable in reaching businesses. Learn more about what RALIANCE Business has to offer at raliance.org/business. Find RALIANCE online: www.raliance.org Twitter and Facebook: @RALIANCEorg PARTNER NEWS NRCDV celebrates 25 years, welcomes new CEO The National Resource Centeron Domestic Violence (NRCDV) recently celebrated 25 years of providing services and advocating for survivors of domestic violence. Everyday, NRCDV stays true to their commitment to end domestic violence. NSVRC wants to say a heartfelt thank-you to long-time CEO Anne Menard, who transitioned out of her position. Anne’s commitment to the movement spans 40 years, and she has left a legacy of powerful leadership and commitment to survivors. We also want to welcome new CEO Farzana Safiullah. Farzana has been part of NRCDV’s senior leadership team for over 13 years, as well as being a founding member and co-leader of the Muslim Advocacy Network Against Domestic Violence. We wish Farzana the best of luck in her new role and look forward to working with her as she continues NRCDV’s impotant work! FROM THE LIBRARY Recommended reading Are you interested in learning more from the journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein story? Or survivors like Chanel Miller, otherwise known as Emily Doe? Or maybe you want to brush up on your consent knowledge during Sexual Assault Awareness Month and beyond. These reading lists capture a few of the amazing resources in the NSVRC library, and you can find even more at www.nsvrclibrary.org. 1. Journalists on the cases they broke She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey (2019) New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey share the process of their investigative reporting into Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s harassment and assault. Soulless: The Case Against R. Kelly by Jim DeRogatis (2019) In Soulless, critic and reporter Jim DeRogatis continues his nearly twenty-year reporting on musician R. Kelly’s alleged abuse of young women. Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow (2019) While reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey were covering Harvey Weinstein, Ronan Farrow was working on a parallel investigation into how Weinstein and others used their power to cover up abuse. 2. Survivors, in their own words Know My Name by Chanel Miller (2019) Before the world knew her as Chanel Miller, we knew her as Emily Doe — the young woman whose victim impact statement in the Brock Turner case went viral. Three years later, she revealed her real name along with the story from her perspective. What Is a Girl Worth? by Rachael Denhollander (2019) Rachael Denhollander was the first survivor of former doctor Larry Nassar to go public with her story. In her memoir, she tells the full story of breaking her silence. 3. Catch up on consent Sexual Consent by Milena Popova (2019) Learn how pop culture has shaped our ideas of consent and how we can shift that understanding to promote healthier sexuality and meaningful social change. Can I Kiss You? by Michael J. Domitrz (2016) Domitrz offers real-world advice on how to build respect with partners and practice open communication around intimacy. Consent. The New Rules of Sex Education by Jennifer Lang, MD (2018) This book, written for teens, serves as a reference guide to healthy sexual expression and relationships. List curated by Susan Sullivan, NSVRC Prevention Campaign Specialist RALIANCE Business gives companies a comprehensive approach to addressing sexual misconduct, harassment, and assault in the workplace. Visit raliance.org/business © 2020 National Sexual Violence Resource Center. All rights reserved.