A vision for social change has been at the root of our movement to end sexual and domestic violence for over three decades. We seek not only to provide services for victims of the violence, but also to alter the misinformation, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that allow domestic and sexual violence to occur. With help from the prevention field and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, our grassroots social change work has new tools for preventing the violence before it begins.
The Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancement and Leadership Through Alliances (DELTA) program and the Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) programs, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), seek to create community-based, sustainable sexual and domestic violence prevention efforts through the development of local collaborations. Communities are provided with training and resources to develop prevention plans appropriate for their locality. These plans address the issues of sexual and domestic violence at four levels: the individual, relationship, community, and societal.
Sexual and domestic violence are complex social phenomena that do not have easy solutions. Ideas about violence and oppression are deeply embedded within our culture. And, the economic, social and emotional costs of sexual and domestic violence for our society are huge. Perhaps on a more human level, however, we have an ethical responsibility to prevent sexual and domestic violence. Safety is a basic human right, something to which we are entitled. Violence affects each of us our selves, our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, our partners, and our friends. Can any of us really be safe if we fail to address this issue in our everyday lives?
Prevention and intervention services are two sides of the same coin. Effective prevention programming is informed and enriched by our experiences in serving victims. Prevention is a lengthy process. Victim services will still be needed to help todays victims even as we work to prevent future victimization. Just as importantly, prevention efforts are our best hope of reducing the numbers of people in need of our assistance.
The path ahead is not easy. Ending sexual and domestic violence will require all of us to come together as a community to change fundamental ways of seeing the world. We are still learning how to be most effective in preventing these types of violence. But change is possible. Violence is learned and can be unlearned.
Sources: Family Violence Prevention Fund, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization
Sexual and domestic violence primary prevention efforts are relatively new ways to talk about the societal problem of violence against women. To ensure maximum effectiveness with limited resources, we draw on information from other prevention and public health efforts, such as drug and alcohol use and seat belt safety, to identify promising practices. Drawing on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the scientific literature, and preliminary efforts, here are some of the basic building blocks of an effective prevention program.
The public health model offers us a new framework to think about social change work as the prevention of sexual and domestic violence. Borrowing from public health language, we can identify three types of prevention: primary, secondary and tertiary. While secondary and tertiary are focused on preventing a reoccurrence, primary prevention seeks to stop sexual and domestic violence before the first occurrence. All three are necessary to effectively stop abuse and violence. Primary prevention strategies have the best likelihood of reducing significant numbers of victims because they reach and affect the largest numbers of individuals. Primary prevention strategies also reinforce intervention strategies by creating a climate where sexual and domestic violence are viewed as unacceptable.
Prevention and intervention are complementary pieces of a whole. They reinforce and sustain each other. Because prevention is a long-term effort, even if prevention efforts eventually eradicate sexual and domestic violence, victim and offender services are vital in the short-term.
Intervention services are also important partners in prevention planning to ensure appropriate resources for victims who disclose as a result of prevention work. Presentations on sexual and domestic violence often result in first-time disclosures from victims. A prevention plan dealing with youth, for example, might include training for school counselors on how to best help young people who disclose incidents of abuse.
Our everyday experience of the world is shaped by four spheres of influence the individual, the relationship, the community, and the societal.
While the four levels of the social ecology overlap, they are also distinct levels that influence our knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. They affect our learned understanding of the world and change throughout time to respond to shifts of the world around us. Since aspects of all four levels impact us, effective prevention programs must also address all four levels.
There is no defining factor that creates a perpetrator of these crimes. There are, however, certain factors that seem to correlate with or increase the risk of perpetration, and others that seem to help protect against or decrease the risk of perpetration. Risk and protective factors are cumulative; having multiple risk factors increases the likelihood of perpetration and having multiple protective factors decreases the risk of perpetration. Building protective factors in individuals who have risk factors improves the chances of that individual having healthy relationships.
By level of the social ecology at which they occur, some of the risk and protective factors for the perpetration of sexual and domestic violence are:
It takes a community to end sexual and domestic violence. Since our knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are shaped by influences at multiple levels of the social ecology, it requires a community-level response to end sexual and domestic violence. Delivering multiple messages at multiple levels over time creates change. The more parts of the community that provide prevention messages, the more likely it is that change will occur.
Communities are also unique entities and only communities can accurately assess their own needs. Prevention programs must be adjusted to fit specific communities. The dialogue about how best to do that becomes much richer (and much more likely to succeed) when a broad segment of the community participates. Community ownership increases sustainability, an important factor to consider since change is a long-term process.
The social ecology and risk and protective models help us to organize our thinking around sexual and domestic violence prevention but neither provides an underlying cause. In reviewing sexual and domestic violence statistics from the World Health Organization, we find that such violence occurs at staggering rates globally. By looking for commonalities among societies with higher rates of these types of violence and societies with lower rates, one similarity is that societies with higher rates also tend to have a lower level of gender equality. Gender inequality creates social conditions in which women are more likely to be victims of sexual and domestic violence. Attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that define women as lesser than men make violence against women more socially acceptable.
Reducing root causes of sexual and domestic violence will require social change. Social change is a long-term process and requires a sustained commitment to prevention efforts. Changes in the fundamental ways in which we see the world create a safer environment and new opportunities for all people.
A number of terrific prevention programs are currently being tried throughout Kansas as a part of the DELTA and Rape Prevention and Education programs. While these spotlights represent only a portion of what each of the communities is trying as part of prevention efforts, they demonstrate the variety of innovative ways in which communities have been able to integrate sexual and domestic violence prevention.
Men from the local coordinated community response team formed a men against violence group. The group meets regularly to discuss healthy relationships, their own journeys to move beyond sexism, and how to help boys grow into respectful, non-violent men. While the group is still in its early stages, participants have already made a public statement that domestic violence is wrong by organizing a truck display for the Christmas parade. The group also works with the local DELTA coordinator to encourage intimate partner violence prevention in local schools.
Supporting respectful attitudes among youth is the focus for the Crawford County coordinated community response team (CCR) under DELTA. Since youth are so greatly influenced by the attitudes of peers, the CCR uses social norms campaigns to let students know that the majority of kids their own age support healthy relationships. Working with Pittsburg State University, the CCR surveys students and then creates a school-specific media campaign that emphasizes statistics about respectful attitudes among students within the school. Students get more information about healthy relationships from participating in Safe Dates, a curriculum that the local CCR partnered with schools to present in science classes.
Students in Geary County learn about healthy relationships in school just like they learn science and math. Geary County schools have worked with the local DELTA project to adopt Safe Dates as a part of the curriculum, sending the message to students that, while healthy relationships may not be on standardized tests, they are just as important as anything else we learn. This message is reinforced in other places teens visit, such as the local recreation center.
The Lyon County CCR recognized that changing attitudes in younger children is often easier than changing those attitudes once they become ingrained. But the group also struggled with how to present healthy relationship information to kids when they still think the other gender has "cooties." In reviewing studies on a common problem for kids of all ages, bullying, they discovered that these problems overlapped a great deal. The solution was to present bullying information to younger children while presenting healthy dating information to teens. As a part of the DELTA project, schools throughout Lyon County now have programs that send a unified message around respect.
Since prevention programs need to fit the unique character of each community, the Sedgwick County Domestic Violence Coalition has used the DELTA project to put prevention power in the hands of the people. Schools participating in the prevention program have formed school-specific committees, made up of "prevention engineers" who work with the CCR to develop a multi-level prevention program for their school. This approach has helped increase buy-in and ensured the participation of the school community.
Demonstrating that policy can facilitate and reinforce change, the Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) program at Safe Homes has worked with the local school district to change school policy regarding bullying prevention and sexual harassment. The message is reinforced at other levels of the social ecology through the use of curricula in the schools and community-based events, including a fundraiser that supports the work of the local RPE program.
Students in Douglas County schools receive prevention messages through experiential activities, such as painting "respect murals" on walls in the schools and taking field trips that help youth understand the challenges of survivors. The Rape Prevention and Education program at GaDuGi SafeCenter has already incorporated evaluation in their work as part of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention empowerment evaluation project.
Unified School District 214 in Grant County has utilized their Rape and Prevention Education program to develop a district-wide plan for comprehensive prevention programming. The plan includes education for all students in grades K-12, and a sexual violence prevention curriculum has been approved for use in health and sexuality classes. Students participating in day camps in this area are also exposed to prevention messages as part of a collaborative effort to teach children about healthy behaviors.
Safehome has developed a primary prevention project through their Rape Prevention and Education program that seeks to make prevention messages a standard part of education in schools. The curriculum has been presented to 75 different middle and high school classes and is currently being evaluated.
The Crisis Center has partnered with community members under the auspices of the Rape Prevention and Education program to implement a three-pronged approach to sexual violence prevention, including a bullying program, a dating violence program for at-risk teens and a peer educator program utilizing university students as mentors. The initiatives are aimed at changing attitudes and behaviors that often precede sexual violence.
Changes in school policy on sexual harassment and education for all staff, teachers and administrators on this topic are two elements of the Rape Prevention and Education program in Wichita by the Wichita Area Sexual Assault Center and the Safe Communities Coalition in Sedgwick County. Preliminary results from these and other prevention initiatives suggest positive changes in attitudes of male students and staff toward non-violence.
Middle school students in Wyandotte County get help from the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault (MOCSA) Rape Prevention and Education program in developing knowledge and skills for non-violent relationships. MOCSA is utilizing empowerment evaluation to assess their work and considering ways to share their success with other programs.
Responsible prevention programming must include plans for safe and accessible services for victims. But providing services for teens, for whom many prevention programs are aimed, raises special considerations. While there are many similarities between teen dating violence and adult domestic violence, the two are not the same and the differences matter in helping victims. Additionally, teen victims are often legal minors and, unfortunately, this prevents them from accessing a number of options available to adult victims.
Below are some specific issues to consider when planning for intervention services for teen victims of sexual and domestic violence:
The Family Violence Prevention Fund
http://www.endabuse.org
Liz Claiborne Inc.
http://www.loveisnotabuse.com
See It and Stop It
http://www.seeitandstopit.org
Ohio Domestic Violence Network
http://www.odvn.org
National Center for Victims of Crime
http://www.ncvc.org
Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape
http://www.teenpcar.org
National Youth Violence Prevention Center
http://www.safeyouth.org
Stop Bullying Now
http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov
Your chance to purchase the "Stop Family Violence" stamp ends soon. The stamp is available for sale through December 31, 2006. This stamp marks just the third time in U.S. Postal Service history to have a stamp's net proceeds earmarked for a specified cause. Eight cents from the sale of each stamp goes to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for domestic violence programs. Since its release on October 11, 2003, more than 25 million stamps have been sold.
In response to national statistics on teen dating violence and the associated health issues, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in partnership with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, have launched a statewide media campaign called, "Choose Respect."
The campaign will include print and broadcast announcements promoting positive relationship messages among youth and seeks to prevent the first-time occurrence of teen dating violence. The campaign also includes an interactive website (www.chooserespect.org) where teens can not only get information about this issue, but also create their own music videos.
Kansas is one of 11 states participating in the campaign.
Efforts to prevent sexual and domestic violence in Kansas will expand this fall and winter with the addition of two new components to the DELTA and RPE programs. While continuing to implement prevention initiatives, both programs will begin the process of evaluating existing prevention work and formulating a statewide plan for future efforts.
"Evaluating the work we're doing is an important part of our prevention efforts," said Deborah Zelli, domestic violence prevention coordinator at KCSDV. "Adding evaluation to the project will help us direct our limited resources most effectively while allowing us to share our successes and challenges with others just beginning sexual and domestic violence prevention."
Utilizing this and other Kansas data, a statewide committee will be formed to examine current efforts and future directions for sexual and domestic violence prevention efforts in Kansas. The committee will draw together representatives from a wide range of sectors to develop a blueprint for the integration of prevention work into existing and new services.
To find out more about the committee, contact Deborah Zelli at 785-232-9784 or at dzelli@kcsdv.org.
Shelly Lenczewski joined KCSDV in May and serves as the Project Assistant on the Safety & Accountability Audit. She has a bachelor's degree in human services with an emphasis in youth service from Washburn University. While attending Washburn, she helped launch LINC, a volunteer student service-learning group, and helped start the first AmeriCorp program with the Topeka Youth Project. Shelly has previously worked at an emergency youth shelter in Topeka, the KANZA Mental Health and Guidance Center, Inc. and Maximus. She has also been a table games dealer and supervisor for casinos in Kansas and Las Vegas.
Joyce Resnick joined KCSDV in May and serves as the OARS Advocacy Coordinator. She has a bachelor's degree in social work from Pittsburg State University and a master's degree in social work from Washburn University. She brings to KCSDV more than 35 years of public service including 28 years at the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services working in the areas of child welfare, psychiatric social work and grants and contracts. Joyce has served as adjunct faculty at Highland Community College teaching marriage and family and has been working part-time doing crisis counseling for 12 years.
Melissa Snickles joined KCSDV in June. Besides working full time at KCSDV as the Staff Support Assistant, Melissa will graduate from Bryan College in September with an associates degree in Business Administration.
17 - Protection Order Training - Kansas City, Kansas
26-27 - In Our Backyard: Rural Responses to Domestic Violence - Emporia
1-3 - ED/Senior Staff Retreat - Wichita
29-30 - Court Advocate Training - Topeka
For more information and registration for trainings and events, visit: www.kcsdv.org/train.html
Programs are listed below alphabetically by city with HOTLINE phone numbers. Call the program nearest to you. You do not have to live in the city where the program is located to use their services.
| CITY | MEMBER PROGRAMS | HOTLINE NUMBERS |
|---|---|---|
| Atchison | DoVES (also serves Hiawatha) | 800-367-7075 or 913-367-0363 |
| Coffeyville | Crisis Resource Center of Southeast Kansas, Inc. | 888-320-7218 |
| Dodge City | Crisis Center of Dodge City | 620-225-6510 |
| El Dorado | Family Life Center of Butler County | 316-321-7104 or
800-8870-6967 |
| Emporia | SOS, Inc. | 800-825-1295 or 620-342-1870 |
| Garden City | Family Crisis Services | 620-275-5911 |
| Great Bend | Family Crisis Center | 620-792-1885 |
| Hays | Northwest Kansas Domestic and Sexual Violence Services (also serves Goodland) | 800-794-4624 or 785-625-3055 |
| Hutchinson | Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Center (also serves McPherson) | 800-701-3630 or 620-663-2522 |
| Iola | Hope Unlimited | 620-365-7566 |
| Kansas City, KS | Friends of Yates Joyce Williams Center | 913-321-0951 |
| Kansas City, KS | El Centro, Inc. ¡Si, Se Puede! | 913-281-1186 |
| Kansas City, MO | MOCSA | 816-531-0233 |
| Lawrence | Ga Du Gi (Previously known as Rape Victim Survivor Service) | 785-841-2345 |
| Lawrence | Women's Transitional Care Services (also serves Ottawa) | 800-770-3030 or 785-843-3333 Ottawa: 785-242-6300 |
| Leavenworth | Alliance Against Family Violence (also serves Tonganoxie) | 913-682-9131 |
| Liberal | Liberal Area Rape Crisis and DV Services | 620-624-8818 |
| Manhattan | The Crisis Center, Inc also serves Junction City) | 800-727-2785 or 785-539-2785 |
| Mayetta | Prairie Band Potawatomi Family Violence Prevention Program | 888-9666-2932 |
| Newton | Harvey County DV/SA Task Force | 800-487-0510 |
| Overland Park | Safehome, Inc. (Also serves Miami County) | 888-432-4300 or 913-262-2868 |
| Pittsburg | Crisis Resource Center of Southeast Kansas, Inc. (also serves Coffeyville) | 800-794-9148 |
| Reserve | Sac & Fox STOP Violence Against Indian Women | 785-742-0053 |
| Salina | Domestic Violence Assoc. of Central Kansas | 800-874-1499 |
| Topeka | YWCA Battered Women Task Force | 888-822-2983 or 785-354-7927 |
| Ulysses | DoVES of Grant County | 620-356-2608 |
| Wichita | Catholic Charities Harbor House | 316-263-6000 |
| Wichita | StepStone | 316-265-1611 |
| Wichita | Wichita Area Sexual Assault Center | 316-263-3002 |
| Wichita | YWCA Women's Crisis Center | 316-267-SAFE (7233) |
| Winfield | Cowley County Safe Homes | 620-221-HELP (4357) or 800-794-7672 |
To become a member of the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual
and Domestic Violence (KCSDV), in support of the statewide
effort to end sexual and domestic violence in Kansas, print
out and complete the following form and mail to:
| ______ | Ally Organization: $100.00 (Any organization or group of three or more persons whose primary purpose is other than providing services to victims of sexual and/or domestic violence.) |
| ______ | Individual Member: $20.00 (Any person who subscribes to the purpose of the Coalition and who pays annual dues.) |
| ______ | Program Advocate or Survivor: $5.00 |
| ______ | I wish to make an additional contribution of $__________ to KCSDV. |
| ______ | I wish to make a pledge of $___________ to KCSDV. My first installment is enclosed. Please bill me (circle one: monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually) for the balance. |
Name ______________________________________________________________________
Address ____________________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip _______________________________________________________________
Phone __________________________ E-Mail ______________________________________
| NAME | TITLE |
|---|---|
| Sandy Barnett | Executive Director |
| Stefanie Benson | Protection Order Project Coordinator |
| Pam Burrough | Immigration Program Attorney |
| Claire Cook | Executive Staff Assistant |
| Jehan Faisal | Training Coordinator |
| Deanne Flickinger | Immigration Project Attorney |
| Joyce Grover | Attorney & Legal Advo. Coord. |
| Laurie Harrison | Communications Coord. |
| Marie Landry | Staff Attorney |
| Shelly Lenczewski | Safety & Accountability Audit Project Asst. |
| Stacey Mann | Advocacy Services Coord. |
| Chandra McCrae | Accounting Asst. |
| Annie McKay | Child Welfare Policy Coord. |
| Kim Pentico | Economic Justice Coord. |
| Joyce Resnick | OARS Advocacy Coord. |
| Kelly Rhoades | Safety and Accountability Assessment Coord. |
| Melissa Rogers | Publications and Web Specialist |
| Jean Rosenthal | Legal Services Committee Coord. |
| Rebekah Santana | Staff Support Assistant |
| Michelle Schone | Safety and Accountability Audit Assistant |
| Elaine Sherrick | Finance & Operations Coord. |
| Viola Straley | Accounting Manager |
| Debby Zelli | Domestic Violence Prevention Coord. |
This newsletter is published quarterly, hard copy and online, JAN, APRIL, JULY, and OCT. Deadlines for calendar and article submissions are DEC 1, MAR 1, JUNE 1, and SEPT 1. Submissions will be reviewed for content and space availability.
Please send submissions to:
KCSDV
634 SW Harrison, Topeka, KS,
66603
FAX: 785-232-9784, or
coalition@kcsdv.org
attn: Communications Coordinator.
KANSAS COALITION AGAINST SEXUAL AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
634 SW Harrison, Topeka, KS 66603
(785) 232-9784 FAX (785) 266-1874
coalition@kcsdv.org
www.kcsdv.org
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