NSVRC Blogs

By December Lange Treacy, MS Assistant Project Director and Program Evaluator at STEPs at the University of Nebraska at Omaha Support and Training for the Evaluation of Programs (STEPs) evaluates the Rape Prevention & Education (RPE) program in Nebraska, which is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The contents of this post are solely the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services. Recently, a prevention educator and I were

In the library world, we believe in the right to read and the freedom to choose what we want to read. Banned Books Week (September 27th— October 3rd) brings together those working in the world of books and literacy under a common goal: the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those that might be unorthodox or unpopular. Within the 10 most challenged books of 2019, I can proudly say that the Respect Together library collections hold five of those books in our collections. George by Alex Gino tells the story of George, a girl whose sex was assigned male at birth. George thinks she’ll

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Harrisburg, PA — The National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) and the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) are pleased to honor David D’Amora with the 2020 Gail Burns-Smith Award. David is known for building relationships between criminal justice agencies, treatment providers, and victim advocates. He is currently a Senior Policy Advisor with the Council of State Governments Justice Center. Presented jointly by ATSA and NSVRC, this award is named in honor of Gail Burns-Smith, one of the first advocates who recognized and spoke

I remember where I was when I first heard about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), or potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood and can impact future violence victimization and perpetration as well as lifelong health. It was the late 1990s, my combat boots were as worn out as my purple hair, and I was working at a sexual assault prevention program on a college campus. I held onto the boots for many more years, but this research helped me to let go of old thinking about healing from sexual harm and talk about the link between childhood trauma and adult health in new

We know that how we communicate about sexual violence and health inequities matters. We also know that certain groups of people are at higher risk for sexual violence, and that those same people are also the most impacted by inequitable systems and oppression in our society. NSVRC has released an infographic on the connections between sexual violence and all forms of oppression.  By providing a guide to framing these realities, we can better understand how to contextualize information and statistics so the connection between oppression and sexual violence is clear. We hope this infographic

On this episode of Resource on the Go, we discuss how this year's Sexual Assault Awareness Month drastically changed due to COVID-19 and the broader takeaways we can all continue to apply to our prevention and outreach work. Topics covered: why all our work should be accessible, Black Lives Matter and its connection with sexual violence prevention, the importance of vulnerability in our work, and continuing the momentum of change in outreach strategies going forward.  Listen to Resource on the Go Episode 3: Five Takeaways from the First-Ever Completely Virtual Sexual Assault Awareness Month

On this episode of Resource on the Go, NSVRC's Evaluation Coordinator Sally Laskey talks with Dr. Victoria Banyard, Professor and Associate Director at the Center on Violence Against Women and Children, Rutgers School of Social Work, and Robin P. Christopherson, the Executive Director of MCVP Crisis and Prevention Center, to discuss what they have learned in a CDC-funded research project to evaluate Green Dot Community. Listen to Resource on the Go Episode 2: Lessons Learned from Implementing Green Dot Community Episode 2 Transcript Additional Resources:  Green Dot For Communities For more

In the anti-sexual violence field, we talk a lot about community-level prevention. But what does that mean? And what does community-level prevention look like? In the first episode of our new podcast, Resource on the Go, NSVRC's Prevention Director Jennifer Grove and Prevention Specialist Mo Lewis discuss what community-level prevention really means. Hear them grapple with the many uses of the word “community,” learn the litmus test they use to help figure out if something is really community-level prevention, and get more familiar with the ways we discuss this level of the Social

The tragic death of Private First Class Vanessa Guillén has brought the nation’s attention, once again, to the scope and impact of sexual harassment and assault on the ranks of our military. Just like in communities everywhere — sexual assault, harassment, and abuse in the military is commonplace and underreported. In the military, an emphasis on unit cohesion and the hierarchical structure could deter victims from coming forward. Victims who do report experiencing sexual violence during their military service (often refered to as military sexual trauma) have described being ostracized

We’re always looking for creative ways to share what we and our partners are working on through platforms like our YouTube channel, online campus, and social media pages. That’s why we’ve launched our new podcast, Resource on the Go.   Podcasts have quickly become the soundtracks to many of our daily lives. Wherever you are and wherever you’re going, Resource on the Go will help keep you up-to-date with the latest tools and information for those working to respond to and prevent sexual harassment, abuse, and assault.   Each episode, we’ll share insights on responding to and preventing