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Overview of State Prevention Team

Transforming Sexual Violence Prevention in Massachusetts Presented by the MA State Violence Prevention Team. Overview of State Prevention Team.

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Overview of State Prevention Team

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  1. Transforming Sexual Violence Preventionin MassachusettsPresented by the MA State Violence Prevention Team

  2. Overview of State Prevention Team • 2005-2008: 4 states funded by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to apply public health methods in creating statewide sexual violence primary prevention plans. • MA State Prevention Team (SPT) convened by DPH and Jane Doe Inc: RCC and DV programs, experts on sexually abusive behavior, universities, population-specific groups and other key state and community stakeholders.

  3. Ingredients for Prevention Success:the 3 “P’s” • Paradigm expansion - A hopeful new look at an old problem • Primary prevention-taking action before sexual violence has occurred 3. A Plan—that draws from data, other fields and best practices

  4. Ingredient 1: Paradigm Expansion HOPE

  5. Holidays are some of the most dangerous times of the year on the road. Stay Home - Don’t Drive. Happy Holidays from the Highway Commission!

  6. Women should: Walk in pairs, Not drink, Not trust anyone, Not go out after dark, Stay Home.

  7. Who is responsible for prevention? Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk

  8. Community Relationship Individual Societal Individual Designated drivers Relationship Parent/Teen Pledge, Friends Don’t Let… Community MADD, SADD community organizing creating new norms Societal Drunk driving laws and enforcement practices

  9. First Ingredient Paradigm Expansion • Sexual violence harms everyone so everyone has a role in prevention • Most victims and perpetrators live in our communities but are not identified • Focusing on victim safety is different from preventing sexual violence in the first place • Prevention of sexual violence is a cost-effective investment

  10. Second Ingredient:Primary prevention • Moving “upstream”: stop sexual violence from occurring in the first place. • Focuses on efforts that are evidence-based, comprehensive and address all levels of society.

  11. Continuum of prevention Preventing perpetration Preventing victimization Continuum of prevention 24 Understanding child sexual abuse as a public health problem The Enough Abuse Campaign

  12. Community Relationship Individual Societal Perpetration Prevention Sexually aggressive peers Strongly patriarchal family Social norms support SV Weak laws/ policies re: SV & gender equality Poverty Lack of economic opportunity Weak community sanctions General tolerance of SV Hostility towards women History of abuse Coercive sexual fantasies

  13. Key messages for primary sexual violence prevention in MA • Relationships will be respectful and mutual, based on equality and open communications; • Healthy sexuality will be safe and inclusive of diverse cultures, disabilities, gender identities, sexual orientations and ages; • Families, communities, and institutions (e.g., media, government) will create and sustain environments that promote healthy constructions of sexuality, gender and relationships.

  14. Third Ingredient: A Plan for MA • Recognizes that primary prevention of perpetration as core component of comprehensive approach • Understands that oppressions intersect and create conditions for sexual violence • Provides a culturally-relevant foundation • Insists on trauma-informed prevention and health promotion • Attends to sustainability/accountability • Builds on the strengths of a strong statewide advocacy movement and the leadership of rape crisis centers

  15. How did we identify priorities? • Researched unique features of MA—data, assets, strengths, and challenges • Defined key audiences, knowing that we could not reach everyone in 5 – 8 years • Utilized research about risk and protective factors and evidence-informed prevention.

  16. Why prioritize engagement of selected populations? • Higher victimization risk/burden: women, people with developmental disabilities, GLBT communities, youth to college age • Higher perpetration risk: males • Readiness of certain “systems” to engage in primary prevention • Opportunities to promote key messages.

  17. Readiness/Strategy Example: Systems serving people with developmental disabilities • Increase capacity of DDS services for the promotion of healthy sexuality and relationships among clients and systems. • Supports DDS’ human rights policy of clients to have “intimate relationships with mutually consenting adults” and “be free from harm and abuse”

  18. Why prioritize engagement of selected populations? • All people pass through youth as they develop their values about relationships and sexuality. • 95% of assaults reported to rape crisis centers in MA perpetrated by males. Most males don’t abuse, but the majority of those who sexually abuse all genders and sexual orientations are male.

  19. Additional plan strategies: • Support the promotion of healthy constructions of masculinity for all males across the lifespan • Foster mobilization of communities to identify & define their own key elements of SV prevention • Engage schools and campuses to foster policies to promote respectful, consensual relationships • Build upon the Jane Doe - DPH partnership to expand capacity of sexual and domestic violence programs as leaders in prevention

  20. Can A Plan Work? An example from Vermont: 1994: 10 year VT “Integrated Action Plan for Abuse Free State” * Family-based prevention: Parenting support * Victim/victimizer prevention: URSBC * Cultural transformation for abuse prevention: SAFE-T program Results: # perpetrators decreased by 31% # cases decreased by 60%

  21. Next Steps? • State funding for sexual and domestic violence prevention (new in FY09) = opportunity to cultivate prevention capacity and initiatives • State agencies and stakeholders urged to collaborate with SPT to ensure a coordinated approach supportive of overall effectiveness. • Learn more about effective approaches to prevention that “fit” our respective roles within the “prevention system”; consider implications for our systems and programming • Support healthy relationships and healthy sexuality in our own homes, communities, workplaces, practices- and consider as policy lens. Contact: mark.bergeron-naper@state.ma.us

  22. THANK YOU! Thank you to the Governor’ Council, State Prevention Team members and to the many agencies and organizations that have provided input, such as: Jane Doe Inc. The Network/LaRed BARCC Close To Home UMass/EWC Boston University MASOC/MATSA Harvard University Enough Abuse EOHHS DDS/DMR Dept. of Early Ed. and Care DESE/DOE Dept. of Children and Families DPPC Children’s Trust Fund CDC …and many more!

  23. Moving upstream

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