Why A Theme?
There is strength in numbers. Coordinated actions and unified voices serve to increase visibility and, therefore, the effectiveness of public education campaigns. The theme of Decide to End Sexual Violence, a concept that is at the core of our collective work as rape crisis centers, is designed to stand on its own yet be compatible with most rape crisis center individual campaigns. CALCASA hopes that you will incorporate the Decide to End Sexual Violence theme into your SAAM activities in recognition of the strength of our message when we stand together.
The Power of Many as We Decide to End Sexual Violenceand Promote Healthy Relationships and Communities
In the last thirty years, the rape crisis movement has led the way in providing services to victims and empowering individuals to chart their own course for healing and empowerment. More recently, we have concentrated our resolve on deepening an active public conversation about what sexual violence is, how to prevent it, and how to support survivors. This year’s theme, Decide to End Sexual Violence, reflects our national and statewide efforts to give new meaning to the phrase “public advocacy”; encouraging every member of the public to join in raising awareness about sexual violence, its impact on communities as a health and justice issue. Taking action together, we will end rape and sexual assault and achieve our unified vision of a world free from sexual violence.
CALCASA’s Strategic Forum Report: a vision to end sexual violence identified the underlying reality that no one person, organization, agency or community can eliminate sexual assault alone. Experts and front-line providers from diverse disciplines in the fields of sexual assault prevention and crisis support services agreed: collaboration is key to gaining broad-based public acknowledgment of sexual violence as a problem that impacts every community. Until there is clear public agreement on that point, we must identify ways to jointly communicate support for healthy social norms, while rejecting attitudes and social mores about what it means to be a woman or a man that are unhealthy, unattainable and unsafe. With this understanding and agreement, we can advocate the variety of action steps that individuals and communities can take to end rape.
The greatest examples of momentous social change have always included collective action taken by people with sometimes different beliefs. Although some women’s organizations of the early 20th Century preferred legal avenues of advocacy to win the right to vote, others chained themselves to the gates of the White House. However, despite their different approaches, they were collectively successful in conveying their message that women are full human beings deserving of official representation. In collective action there is strength.
The communication materials contained in this year’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month Information Packet build upon the ideas, goals and strategies put forward by the Strategic Forum Report: a vision to end sexual violence. We have a vision to end sexual violence. Decide to End Sexual Violence is the unified action that we can all use as a foundation to bring about change whether we are focusing on community leadership, criminal justice perspectives, medical or clinical treatment, school-based and youth prevention efforts, policy decision making, or everyday actions. Incorporating this message into your local campaign will help create a receptive public for SAAM advocacy across the state.
Ways You Can Use the Theme “Decide to End Sexual Violence”
· Build your center’s entire SAAM campaign around the theme Decide to End Sexual Violence. Make full use of the materials included in the Information Packet to schedule, plan, and publicize activities. Order pins and T-shirts to give greater visual impact to those activities.
· Include the phrase Decide to End Sexual Violence in “tag lines” associated with your SAAM campaign. Though it may not be your specific theme, you can incorporate the phrase into your own press releases and strategically mention the statewide campaign.
· Use it as an impetus for developing partnerships with non-traditional partners. Invite representatives of local businesses, organizations and top employers to a “summit” to discuss sexual assault in your community, such as giving an Annual Report on Sexual Violence at city council and county board of supervisors meetings. Come prepared with facts about how sexual violence impacts each of the summit participant’s sphere of activity, including how the issue impacts education, employment, quality of life, and health. Be sure to discuss how the impact of sexual violence is a public health problem of enormous proportions. Have summit volunteers wear Decide to End Sexual Violence T-shirts and remember to thank summit participants and invite others to future meetings on the subject.
· Integrate Decide to End Sexual Violence and the MyStrength campaign into SAAM. Use MyStrength materials and messages to engage young men to join SAAM events where young men demonstrate their decision to end sexual violence by showing that “My Strength is Not for Hurting.”
· Provide your agency brochures and posters to area businesses, recreation centers, places of worship, educational institutions and community organizations. Ask them to post materials about sexual violence, your services and prevention efforts in their break room, on a bulletin board, in a newsletter or in an office-wide e-mail. Find out when you can schedule a sexual violence prevention seminar for their employees, clients, faculty, worshippers, staff, students, or clients.
· Promote the idea of a community-wide response to sexual violence in your media activities around the theme of Decide to End Sexual Violence. Include your ideas about how that might be accomplished. Use SAAM and/or MyStrength materials to create strong visuals to attract media attention.
· Saturate your local middle and high schools, local campuses, faith institutions and other community groups with prevention education presentations. Distribute bookmarks and sell pins. Have volunteers wear customized T-shirts as they encourage attendees to take action to end sexual violence.
Please enter your zip code in the space provided to locate the closest California Rape Crisis Center to you.