Background

CALCASA Statewide Social Marketing Campaign

The MyStrength Campaign

Through funds provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) and California Department of Health Services’ Epidemiology and Prevention Injury Control Branch (DHS/EPIC) have funded CALCASA to provide a statewide, primary prevention, social marketing campaign through October 31, 2005.

CALCASA is developing a campaign focused on preventing perpetration of sexual violence, specifically among young men. This campaign’s target audience is males ages 14 – 18 in the following areas:

Rural Spanish-speaking communities;
Rural English-speaking communities; and
Multicultural urban communities.

Statewide Social Marketing Campaign Goals

CALCASA seeks to develop a Statewide Social Marketing Campaign on primary sexual violence prevention. CALCASA’s campaign will be a facet of violence prevention as outlined in CALCASA’s Strategic Forum Report – a vision to end sexual assault (included in this packet). Through this campaign, CALCASA hopes to achieve the goals within the “key issues” for Ending Sexual Assault, as outlined in CALCASA’s Strategic Forum Report:

Change Public Perceptions of Rape and Sexual Violence by highlighting the importance and effectiveness of primary prevention and education of a population at risk of perpetration;
Overcome Barriers to Prevention by focusing on underserved communities and communities of color in both rural and urban settings;
Involve Men and Boys in Prevention of Rape and Sexual Violence by making young men the target population of the social marketing campaign’s prevention efforts and directly involving these young men in leading prevention activities in their communities and schools;
Promote Sexual Assault Education by creating new tools and materials to use in sexual assault education and awareness building. Additionally, in-school programs will reinforce the learning and outreach at the community level.

CALCASA researched and evaluated existing sexual violence social marketing campaigns from across the nation with proven and successful track records. Through careful deliberation and scrutiny, CALCASA selected Men Can Stop Rape’s “Strength Campaign” as the most promising campaign to adapt and implement in California. CALCASA will enter into a licensing agreement with Men Can Stop Rape to use their licensed products and to develop materials adapted to meet the needs of our target audiences in California.

Why Men Can Stop Rape’s “Strength Campaign?”

CALCASA staff found that Men Can Stop Rape’s “Strength Campaign” focused on young men which is CALCASA’s target population and used positive messages to promote its message. CALCASA’s program goals intersect with the methods and messages of the “Strength Campaign.” This campaign is designed to raise awareness of sexual violence and emphasize the role young men play in preventing sexual violence. The campaign is organized around the theme "My Strength is Not for Hurting” and stresses that men can maintain their strength but do not need to use coercion, intimidation, force, or violence in healthy relationships. This campaign targets young men, and has seen great success in Virginia and Washington D.C.

Men Can Stop Rape’s campaign includes posters and other visual materials representing a wide range of ethnicities and communities. Additionally, the “Strength Campaign” involves establishment of Men of Strength Clubs (MOST Clubs) in high school settings. These clubs are for young men and allow its members to explore some of the potentially harmful connections between proving masculinity and sexual violence. The MOST Clubs provide young men with the opportunity to take leadership roles in preventing sexual violence in their schools and communities.

Why Not Create A New Campaign?

Given the limited timeline and funding for this statewide campaign, CALCASA chose to adapt an existing social marketing campaign rather than developing and creating a new campaign for the following reasons:

It maximizes resources for more thorough and consistent saturation in a community at a state and local level with a proven and successful social marketing campaign.
It saves resources for campaign implementation and training of local rape crisis centers rather than expending these funds to create a new campaign.
It allows CALCASA to allocate its funds in more effective manner to fund six pilot sites (up to $20,000 per site) to implement the campaign and MOST Clubs in their local communities.
By adapting an existing campaign (such as the “Strength Campaign” by Men Can Stop Rape), it allows California’s Rape Crisis Centers to be part of a larger, national movement, where California can pool our limited resources and efforts with other states and programs, such as Men Can Stop Rape, to create a unified, national campaign to prevent sexual violence. By pooling our limited resources with other sexual violence prevention programs around the country, it allows us to learn from each other’s work and enhance our efforts to meet the needs of diverse communities and populations we serve.

CALCASA’s Statewide Social Marketing Campaign is a two-tier campaign involving media, visual materials, local communities, schools, and of course, California’s Rape Crisis Centers:

Tier 1 – Statewide Campaign

The statewide campaign will increase the capacity of all California Rape Crisis Centers to use social marketing concepts and provide media materials for their use. Every rape crisis center will receive social marketing training, posters, and other campaign materials for distribution and use in their local communities. CALCASA will also purchase advertising for the campaign throughout the state and will provide a 1 – 2 day training in August 2005 to all centers on the advertising portion of the campaign to achieve a coordinated statewide presence of this campaign in August - September.

Tier 2 –Pilot Sites for Campaign Implementation

CALCASA, through a competitive Request for Proposals (RFP) process, will select and fund six (6) pilot sites (six California Rape Crisis Centers funded by OES’ RCC Operations Grant and DHS EPIC RPE Grant, and the communities the serve) to implement a wide range of sexual violence prevention efforts. The selected rape crisis centers will be funded (maximum of $20,000 per center) to implement Men of Strength Clubs in their local high schools. These selected centers will also receive 4 –5 days of extensive training in August 2005 on the campaign as well as specialized training from Men Can Stop Rape in establishing and facilitating Men of Strength Clubs in local high schools. The pilot sites will also be involved in the evaluation process of the full campaign.

This Statewide Social Marketing campaign will evolve through six stages of development and implementation. These phases are outlined in the attached pages and indicate how California’s Rape Crisis Centers are involved in the campaign’s completion.

Benefits to Rape Crisis Centers and California Communities

CALCASA’s Statewide Social Marketing Campaign provides new tools and strategies for prevention education with a primary prevention focus;
The campaign builds capacity among California’s Rape Crisis Centers’ prevention staff on social marketing and primary prevention strategies;
The statewide campaign provides a consistent, unified message in sexual violence prevention education statewide;
This campaign is designed to be a sustainable program, and local rape crisis centers may use this program as an opportunity to seek local support to continue its implementation.

If CALCASA is able to secure future funds, we will continue and expand development of this Statewide Social Marketing Campaign, if possible, by adapting the program to address needs of other underserved and diverse communities in California.

Developed by the Men Can Stop Rape organization in Washington DC, the campaign centers on the theme of “My Strength is Not for Hurting.” It is designed to raise awareness of sexual violence among youth and highlight the vital role that young men can play in fostering healthy, safe relationships.

The campaign currently appears in communities across the nation, along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and more than 20 countries.

Starting in September 2005, messages of “My Strength is Not for Hurting” and “Men Can Stop Rape” will been heard on radio stations, billboards, and in schools throughout California.

In addition, six pilot sites will conduct Men of Strength Clubs where young men will explore the role of men to stop rape. Programs will be established and operated by the following community organizations:

	Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women: Marshall High School in Los Angeles, CA
	Riverside Area Rape Crisis Center: John W. North High School in Riverside, CA. Contact Riverside Rape Crisis Center at (951-686-7273 for more information.
	United Against Sexual Assault of Sonoma County: Petaluma High School located in Petaluma, CA
	Human Response Network: Trinity High School in Weaverville, CA
	Sexual Assault Recovery & Prevention Center of San Luis Obispo County Lopez High School in Arroyo Grande, CA
	Rape Counseling Service of Fresno, Inc. – West Fresno Rape Crisis Center: Rio Del Rey High School in Helm, CA. Contact Rape Counseling Service of Fresno, Inc - West Fresno Rape Crisis Center at (559)497-2900 for more information.