NSVRC Blogs

With parents and caregivers working from home and children learning remotely, families may find themselves spending more time together lately. This extended time together is a great opportunity for parents and other caring adults to model healthy behaviors, relationships, and boundaries for the kids in their lives. But this can seem like a daunting task – where do you start? We spoke with Jackie Strohm, the Prevention & Resource Coordinator with the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, about Safe Secure Kids, a website full of resources, activities, and information for parents, caregivers

The word that defines the past year and a half could very well be “adapt.” With shutdowns starting in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by uprisings for racial justice across the country spurred by the killing of Black people by police, the months that followed have been an exercise in surviving from moment to moment and determining how best to move forward. Every industry has had to adapt and move away from the way they’ve always operated, and the movement to end sexual assault is no different. Last year saw huge shifts and pivots in fixtures like Sexual Assault Awareness

July 6, 2021                                                                                                                                                          Laura Palumbo, Communications Director National

We are outraged, disheartened, frustrated, and hurt on behalf of all survivors following the decision rendered today by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in the appeal of Bill Cosby’s 2018 conviction on three counts of aggravated indecent assault.   Today’s decision reflects the vast challenges survivors face when they share their experiences of sexual harassment, abuse, and assault in search of justice through the criminal legal system. Far too often, multiple victims must come forward before sexual assault allegations are taken seriously. Cosby will be released because of a technical legal

I often use this space to write about celebrations or days of recognition within the field that also highlight library resources. This post is going to be a bit different as I get to announce that the Respect Together Library collection has just reached 50,000 unique titles!  During my 10 years with this library collection, I have had the privilege of watching it grow from 25,000 to where we are today. Our library has become a known resource center that prides itself in the number of scholarly journals and articles it possesses, outstanding audiovisual materials, the latest in published

Violence Recent statistics showcase a long standing trend — LGBT people are still four times more likely to experience violence in their life than their straight counterparts. FBI data from 2019 illustrates a rise in anti-LGBTQIA+ hate crimes, including higher rates of police brutality. LGBTQIA+ people frequently face threats, harassment, and violence online, and regularly see comments that deny their humanity and right to exist. Racism People of color face discrimination from within the LGBTQIA+ community. Narratives and positions of power are often monopolized by white middle and upper

"The Stonewall Inn" by NicestGuyEver is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0   Pride month means many things to many people. It’s a time of celebration, community strengthening, and visibility. Pride is a hard-won space of representation fought for by countless activists, workers, and all those who fought for the protection and safety of the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as its right to exist. It’s also a time of reflection, and a rallying cry towards the issues still facing LGBTQIA+ people worldwide. Stonewall: The Birth of Pride Pride is generally known as an annual

Working in this space we call advocacy, we hold up many realities at once. We raise alarm about the impact of past abuses while raising awareness on how to prevent them in the future. We recognize that every experience with abuse, trauma, and healing is different while understanding that every experience is valid. We also know that values central to the movement to end violence — like respect and consent — are brought forth into the world when we live them, in both our work lives as advocates and our personal lives as friends, parents, and neighbors. The pandemic has both complicated this

Respect Together is proud to honor Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day — the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States — and highlight its connection to the movement to end sexual violence. Juneteenth marks a milestone for civil rights, commemorating the day when the last enslaved people in Texas learned they were free. For nearly two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery persisted in regions of the country as the Civil War continued, but on June 19, 1865, it was announced that all enslaved people were free

To learn more about best practices working with male survivors of sexual assault, NSVRC reviewed the Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP) 2017 Victim Services Data from the Violence Against Women Act Measuring Effectiveness Initiative. The SASP Formula Grant Program funds sexual assault programs and other organizations to provide services to sexual assault survivors. We were interested in learning how programs used this funding to provide services to men. According to the report, 10.9% of victims served in 2017 whose gender was known identified as male. To learn more about how programs