Primary Prevention

Project ENVISION

The New York City Alliance, in conjunction with 11 of NYC's rape crisis programs, is implementing a six-year citywide Primary Prevention Demonstration Project. The goal of the project is to change the social norms that promote and permit sexual violence in NYC so that we ultimately see a reduction in perpetration of sexual violence. One methodological approach to implementing such multi-level change is community mobilization. With respect to this initiative, community mobilization refers to the organization of communities for the purpose of developing and implementing programs that are tailored to prevent a specific issue. The success of this project hinges on bringing together various segments or sectors of each of the three communities involved in the demonstration project such that they can work together to analyze the causes and effects of sexual violence within their own community and pool resources to design and take action.

Phases of the Project
Because the Alliance grounds all of its work in research, our primary prevention project began with a year of laying the groundwork. This included familiarizing ourselves and rape crisis programs with primary prevention and community mobilization and led to conducting rapid assessments in eleven communities throughout NYC where participating rape crisis programs have a presence. The Alliance believes that communities are in different stages of readiness for primary prevention. Community readiness is the degree to which a community is prepared to take action on a particular health or social issue (Oetting, et al, 1995). Interventions must be challenging enough to move a community forward, but efforts that are too ambitious are likely to fail because community members will not be able to respond (Plested, et al., 2005).

Based on the data from the community readiness assessments and agreed-upon criteria (including the need for varied geographic location, and demographic profiles), the Alliance and the eleven rape crisis programs, selected three sites to implement prevention projects:

1. Lower East Side, (Borough of Manhattan)
2. Highbridge/ Morrisania (Borough of Bronx)
3. Bushwick/ Williamsburg (Borough of Brooklyn)

As of June 2008, the rape crisis programs leading this project have been divided into three teams, each of which will begin the process of community mobilization in the three selected communities. The Alliance will provide training and technical assistance to the rape crisis programs as they engage in this work. This next year will be focused on identifying key stakeholders (policy makers, organizations, community leaders and members) who share a common interest in ending sexual violence, building a community coalition among these leaders, and partnering with community members to assess their needs regarding sexual violence prevention.

For more information, contact the ENVISION project lead at envision@nycagainstrape.org.

Prevention Connection

Prevention Connection is a national online project dedicated to the primary prevention of violence against women. Resources include articles, webinars, and links to other organizations working on primary prevention of sexual violence throughout the nation. Learn more at www.preventconnect.org.

Rape Crisis Training Institute

The Rape Crisis Training Institute is a joint venture between the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault and the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault and is funded by the New York State Department of Health. The RCTI aims to provide access to organizational capacity-building training; meet the specific needs of both the programs and the populations they serve in urban, suburban and rural settings; provide all Rape Crisis Centers with the maximum possible access to all of the trainings statewide; present new resources and strategies to understand the cultural frameworks and needs of all the survivors that they may potentially serve. [Read more]