Newsletter: Spring 2002: Talking to Teens: Rape Crisis Programs’ Successes and Challenges

The topic of the Alliance’s last quarterly meeting, held March 26th, was providing outreach and prevention education to teens in high schools.

Alice Robinson, Outreach and Training Coordinator of the Sexual Assault Violence Intervention (SAVI) program at Mount Sinai Medical Center spoke about her experiences and the work of her program. She discussed the practicalities of delivering this type of content to adolescents, including curriculum development, classroom management and other issues.

Kathleen Kapila, the Alliance’s Research Coordinator, reported on the findings of a focus group held last June on awareness and prevention presentations in high schools by rape crisis programs. Participants in the study compliled a best practice model that included setting ground rules, myths and facts, how to help a friend who has been raped, and building healthy relationships. According to participants, the three most common challenging situations that arise in these workshops are an obvious survivor in the group, an overly aggressive participant, and inappropriate teacher participation. They suggested effective, constructive interventions to handle these situations.

The presentations were followed by a group conversation about the internal aspects of the anti-sexual violence movement that enable this kind of work, and organizational successes and challenges. Participants at the quarterly meeting felt that their information on facts about rape is comprehensive and backed up by statistics which can be used to counter the myths. They also have a thorough familiarity with both the issue and the many services available to survivors. Participants also hoped to increase networking opportunities and national connections that will lead to increased information collection and greater awareness of the value of education around this issue.

The Alliance would like to thank Alice and Kathleen for their presentations, and all of those who participated for their feedback.

Kate Woodrow is the Outreach and Education Associate at The New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault. [[2] more]

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[1]: http://www.nycagainstrape.org/home/nycaasa/stage.nycagainstrape.org/newsletter_author_1.html
[2]: http://www.nycagainstrape.org/home/nycaasa/stage.nycagainstrape.org/newsletter_author_1.html
[3]: http://www.nycagainstrape.org/home/nycaasa/stage.nycagainstrape.org/newsletter_article_2.html
[4]: http://www.nycagainstrape.org/home/nycaasa/stage.nycagainstrape.org/newsletter_article_4.html

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