Newsletter: January 2004

This issue is available for download in PDF Format (657.18K)

Are You Being Served? : The City Must Stand Up to the Assault on Services

New York City’s poor alone would be America’s fifth largest city. And forty-two percent of women receiving public assistance were sexually abused as children. The connections between sexual assault and poverty are impossible to ignore. The anti-poverty and anti-rape movements must work together – for everyone’s sake. [more]

Connecting the Dots : Alliance Testifies on Sex Offender Management and School Intervention

Harriet Lessel, Executive Director for the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault, testified at a City Council hearing entitled “Holding Sex Offenders Accountable and Int. 584” on October 22, 2003. The hearing was held by Council Members Yvette Clarke and Peter Vallone Jr., Chairs of the Committees on Fire & Criminal Justice Services and Public Safety, respectively. [more]

Justice For All : Sexual Assault in the MR/DD Community

In the moments before I meet a woman with mental retardation who is a complainant in a sexual assault case in Brooklyn, I remind myself that this is probably not the first time she was raped. But it may be the first time an outcry witness -- the person she first told about the incident -- believed her. [more]

Getting the Word Out : Safe Horizon Advertises Sexual Assault Hotline

This fall, Safe Horizon released its new awareness campaign to promote use of the citywide sexual assault hotline. The campaign has been imprinted on 3,500 bus and subway posters, and postcards and palm cards have also been printed. [more]

Policy Update

City News: Dignity In All Schools Act (DASA-NYC) | State News: All Felons, Dignity For All Student Act (DASA), Statute of Limitations | National News: Justice Through DNA Technology [more]

Ask the Alliance

I recently received an e-mail warning me that rapists are combining common date rape drugs like "roofies" with a drug called Progesterex that permanently sterilizes a female victim. The e-mail described the drug as a sterilization pill used for horses. Is this true? [more]

Quarterly Meeting Review

The Alliance kicked off our fall quarterly meeting with the good news that much of the legislation we have been fighting to create was passed over the summer. Topics were solicited as we form new priorities for Alliance advocacy. [more]

On the Web

The Alliance’s innovative e-mail and web-based “Listen Campaign” to raise public awareness, introduced at the last Quarterly Meeting, will officially launch in early January. [more]

Just the Facts

Significant differences in the experience of abuse were found between HIV-positive and HIV-negative women in poor urban communities... [more]

Alliance Announcements

State Senator Tom Duane makes generous donation | City Council, Manhattan Delegation and Council Member Quinn award increased funding | Karen Seales is Program Coordinator for Violence Intervention and Treatment Program | Suzanne Towns, Director of the Forensic Healthcare Program leaves the Alliance [more]

Program Announcements

CAMBA establishes new rape crisis program in Brooklyn | DCJS releases new Drug Facilitated Sexual Assault kit | The National Women’s Alliance (NWA) presents 2004 National Election Guide | “March for Freedom of Choice” with NOW-NYC [more]