CALCASA loves this SAAM toolkit! For Sexual Assault Awareness & Prevention Month (SAAPM), the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA) has a national campaign that will employ both traditional and non-traditional methods through the use of social media, social marketing and social change.

Rose Luna writes on the agency blog,

The theme of TAASA’s 2012 SAAPM packet is “Get Social”. The intention behind this theme is to emphasize the connection between community, it’s stakeholders and our agency. It also represents the importance of collaboration and building of relationships in creating awareness and change.

The comprehensive 32-page packet includes information about social media; how it can be used at your agency; social media activities; how social marketing differs from social media; and ideas that rape crisis centers can use during April and the rest of the year to raise awareness about sexual violence. For agencies that are new to social media, this packet is a great starting place with plenty of supportive content.

CALCASA will be using parts of this great resource during our SAAM 2012 activities!

Download the “Get Social” SAAPM packet.

Image from poster from www.globaltvedmonton.com

In Edmonton, Canada, a coalition of organizations called Sexual Assault Voices of Edmonton has launched a new rape prevention campaign targeting potential perpetrators. Their website describes the thinking behind this campaign:

Typically, sexual assault awareness campaigns target potential victims by urging women to restrict their behavior. Research is telling us that targeting the behavior of victims is not only ineffective, but also contributes to how much they blame themselves after the assault. That’s why our campaign is targeting potential offenders – they are the ones responsible for the assault and responsible for stopping it. By addressing alcohol-facilitated sexual assault without victim-blaming, we intend to mark Edmonton on the map as a model for other cities.

What you you think about this campaign?

(Thanks to Feministing for alerting me to this campaign.)

MyStrength.org

Darin James Dorsey is the Associate Educator and MyStrength Facilitator for the Sexual Assault Recovery & Prevention Program of San Luis Obispo County. In this guest post drawn from his professional journal, he provides a first-hand account of the experience as a new MyStrength facilitator starting a new school year.

Click here to see “September, Part 1″ in this journal series.

Darin James Dorsey

October

by Darin James Dorsey

During the third session at School #2, I had planned a number of activities; I was going to do ground rules, roses and thorns, introduce the dominant story, and then have them watch 12 Angry Men for the duration of the session. When I got there, I decided to start with an icebreaker, with the intention of having them open up. I asked them to pair up and talk about home. I asked this question in this way on purpose, I wanted to see how much they would open up without any facilitation. This ended up going for about 15 minutes, and because of the amount of time they took I assumed that they were opening up more than expected, so I decided at this point to toss the agenda and go with this. We reconvened, and shared our stories from home. For the most part, the conversations were centered on the mistakes they made that led them to School #2. It was amazing to see the commonalities in these stories, a lot of them began with matters outside of their hands – parents, friends, family members, and the students then dealt with these issues in certain negative ways. Hearing these stories made me realize how much of an impact one instance can make in a kid’s life. I also shared my story of how I became a MyStrength facilitator at School #2 Youth Academy in San Luis Obispo. I definitely felt more connected to the students after we talked about this. We did roses and thorns to end the session.

During the 4^th session at School #2, we started by creating ground rules, (which had been tabled since week 2) and then watched about 42 minutes of 12 Angry Men. I think that the 1957 classic is absolutely perfect for this stage of the program. I’ve found that the dominant story/counter story idea is not necessary; all it does is complicate a simple idea. I think the idea of someone doing something against the status quo — or being a “maverick” as Sarah Palin would call it, is already a concept that they understand and relating it to the dominant story/counter story idea just confuses them and wastes time redefining it. There is a possibility that I could be wrong and I can’t coherently express the idea well enough for them to understand, but given the fact that Austin also had difficulties introducing dominant story/counter story also leads me to believe that the terminology does more harm than good. Anyways, what I’m trying to say is that having them watch 12 angry men, which has a plethora of examples related to masculinity, stereotypes, majority opinion, and renouncing that opinion when it is incorrect and adopted as truth by society — is a much more fun and effective way to introduce the dominant story/counter story concept along with many others.

I had to cancel the fourth 4^th period session at School #1 since I thought it would be smart to start over before getting too deep into the semester with inconsistent attendance.

During the fourth 5^th period session I had 9 students after asking each member to bring a friend, and we did the bigger man exercise. The activity went incredibly well. The first comparison of Kobe Bryant and Tiger Woods was the most interesting, after introducing some of the facts of Colorado v. Kobe Bryant, most were convinced of Kobe’s guilt. After introducing some of the facts of Tiger Woods’ recent issues, they generally came to the conclusion that he was a sex addict and he had a serious problem. The idea here is that Kobe presents a more ‘manly’ persona, and he may have acted on his sexual desires when he did not receive consent. Tiger Woods, while less ‘manly’, had multiple reports from multiple women, and it’s apparent that he may have an addiction. They were both cases of infidelity. Tiger seems to be more open to improving himself. Not too far into the discussion, a student mentioned that girls “cry rape.” I introduced the ’2% of rapes are falsely reported’ statistic, and I also talked about the process of reporting, especially for someone reporting a crime by a perpetrator who is as well known and admired as Kobe Bryant. Eventually we moved on after it seemed that they were convinced that girls generally do not falsely report rape. The rest of the exercise went very well; they are beginning to understand that they can come to their own formulation of masculinity. I think a large part of this came through my persistence in communicating the fact that I will never tell them that their ideas of masculinity are wrong, they will only be challenged.

We planned to show the rest of 12 Angry Men during the fifth week at School #2, but we had some technical difficulties. Instead, we did roses and thorns – an activity that has each of the students talk about one positive and one negative aspect of their life at the moment. A lot of these had to do with them going home the next weekend. After about 15 minutes of this and no agenda, we all had a conversation on cheating in monogamous relationships (a topic that came up during roses and thorns, and was tabled for the duration of the activity), and then their plans for home pass. After the session and a bit of reflection, I decided that having a session like this after establishing the role of facilitator is incredibly helpful. I place an emphasis on the qualification of this sentence because if this were done too early, it would be counterproductive to the establishment of an authority role. I don’t think I’m at a place where I can hold this kind of session during my 5^th period School #1 group, the attitude towards authority at School #2 was very well established before I even started, and it is definitely a challenge to deal with at School #1.

As the groups are finding their identities, there is a lot less work to be done with the groups. While I spent much of my time in September focused on MyStrength, it’s at the point now where session outlines are almost irrelevant and coming up with activities for the students presents no problem. I think this is the perfect time to begin outreach to new schools. While only having School #2 and School #1 is good for this semester and my inexperience in facilitating groups, I think that we are neglecting other students at different schools. Being at alternative schools, I think the students we do come into contact with generally have experience with the dynamics of oppression, and once they understand the message, they usually side with it. It would be interesting to see if students at SLO High could grasp it as easily. Schools like SLO High and Morro Bay High are more similar to my High School, which I was very involved at, so I think I could easily navigate my way through the resources needed to start a successful program. By knowing my former high school as well as I did, I think I can use that knowledge to figure out how we can get access to these high schools. Some ideas I’ve had include talking to sports teams and student government, I have recent experience being the kind of student who participates in these activities and I think I can make more effective appeals to them.

We can’t hit all the high schools right now, but we can work towards that if we can convince faculty and staff of the worth of the program. I don’t think this is as hard as we are making it out to be, it should be desirable to anyone with the student’s interests in mind. Generally, if we can’t convince them that it is in the student’s best interests to have a program like MyStrength, I believe we’re doing something wrong. I also think this program could run without us eventually, if we approach the group with ultimate long term goals. Our goal shouldn’t be to provide education to a few high schools; it should be to provide education to the community by way of high schools. If we can create an independently operating program at certain schools while facilitating others, we’re making a bigger impact.

During the month of October, I think it will be necessary to begin planning how we will pitch MyStrength to new schools. Sending an email and determining their interest by whether or not they respond is not enough. We cannot be sure that we won’t be running a group at a certain high school until someone from that high school says that we will not be running a group there. The MyStrength program and its impact definitely cannot be summarized by an email, so I’m not sure if that’s the most effective way to pitch the program. Much of the program’s appeal is emotionally driven, and it’s hard to communicate that by email. Furthermore, I think the program is more geared towards the general problem of men’s violence and mistreatment of women, and not specifically sexual assault. This leads me to believe that we should downplay the fact that we are a rape crisis center (never denying or hiding it) when we talk about the program, it may be misrepresented if people make that association.

This Thursday I went to a presentation on Bullying hosted by SLO-CAP (Child abuse prevention). There were administrators and teachers from different high schools and districts, so I saw this as an opportunity to network. I talked to one person, TH from Paso Robles, about the program and it sounded like with the budget cuts and whatnot, they actually NEED a program like MyStrength. I also talked to RL, the CEO of the United Way and we talked about collaborating to end childhood abuse in the future.

I have contacted a few people about expanding the program. I left messages and have not yet heard back from VE (AD of SLO High School), KH (Atascadero Unified), and CB (Arroyo Grande High School). I left a message with JK-M (SLO Coastal Unified), and JA (Morro Bay High School) and I did hear back. In JK-M’s case, someone else who could better handle my request called me, unfortunately I have completely forgotten his name. I think it may be Tom or something very American. We talked about the program for about 5-10 minutes and he seemed interested. He told me he would talk about the program with some other people in the district and call me back to set up a time to talk about it in greater detail. JA called me back directly and I described the program to him. At first he thought I was planning on doing some sort of one time presentation, and once I cleared up the fact that it is a 16 week group program, he seemed interested. It seems that administrators are resistant to anti-bullying messages (they seem to think that they’re doing all they can), so I’ll try to stay away from that message. He also said he’d talk to others and get back to me. He didn’t sound as sincere as ‘Tom’ about this, but we’ll see. I’ll call him on Wednesday if I don’t hear from him before then. I called TH (Paso Robles), who I met at the bullying presentation and left a message. I’m somewhat confident that she will call me back.

MyStrength.org

Darin James Dorsey is the Associate Educator and MyStrength Facilitator for the Sexual Assault Recovery & Prevention Program of San Luis Obispo County. In this guest post drawn from his professional journal, he provides a first-hand account of the experience as a new MyStrength facilitator starting a new school year. 

Darin James Dorsey

September

by Darin James Dorsey 

I started School #1 and School #2 groups, School #2 is a much easier club to start – little effort was required, I just showed up and started facilitating. School #1 is where a lot more problems arose. The teachers all gave me about 2-3 minutes in their classroom to pitch the club the day before it started, but I have a feeling this wasn’t very effective in recruiting students. The next day when I did start the club during 4^th period, one student showed up and it was only after I encouraged him to bring his friends with him that I had a group of 3. Managing a 50 minute introductory session is not easy with 3 students, for the first session there should be more students than we desire, since there’s a good chance that some students will not be interested in the group. The next group I had included 8 students, most of them coming from a Math class where the teacher is a strong ally of the program. I’ll try to get her name the next time I’m there. This group was very difficult to facilitate in the gym where we met, there wasn’t a classroom structure. This is only relevant for the first session, which is more of a lecture than a discussion. I find that now the gym is an ideal place to meet, allowing students to get out of the classroom for a while.  

The biggest difference between School #1 and School #2 are the inter-student relationships. At School #2 the students rely on each other, they are in platoons and they are all there with the purpose of becoming better people. They help each other out when they can, which leads me to believe that their sessions should specifically give them opportunities to engage in and promote this behavior. In a sense School #2 students have completed the beginning of the MyStrength program – they recognize that there is a problem. This is why School #1 is a much more difficult school to facilitate, most of these students are part of the problem we are addressing and have not acknowledged that. Telling someone that they ignorantly contribute to a culture of sexual violence and gender oppression is not easy. This leads me to believe that the problem should be presented before we start the program, in a lecture environment. There is less resistance to the message this way, making it easier to present.  

After recruiting on behalf of MyStrength for the first time, I think the most effective tactic would be to bring in a very large group of guys, with no limit on the amount of participants. This introduction would probably be no more than 15-25 minutes. When I haven’t had a chance to build my credibility then the students are more focused on each other than the message I’m providing, and I think a larger group and lecture-type setting will focus their attention. This can be combined with the nomination letter tactic, assuming it is effective. The students who understand and support the message will come to MyStrength the next week, and those against it will not. I think we should embrace this for the time being; MyStrength simply does not work when the students don’t have a personal stake in the program. When the program is better established, it will be worth looking into ways to engage the youth resistant towards the message.  

At School #1, I’ve noticed that social standing is a competition among the students, there is a hierarchy among the students. This hierarchy is very dynamic. The way I see it, they can sense how others view a particular student and in response they are constantly regulating their own actions to be socially acceptable. I believe this is what leads to silence and adversity in MyStrength, and a good amount of focus during the first few sessions should go towards deconstructing the social framework in the room and creating an open environment.  

The 4^th period session at School #1 began with 3 completely different groups, two with three students and one with four. None of these students were returners from a previous week. To me, this illustrates the difficulty of communicating the message of MyStrength to a somewhat resistant and socially paranoid audience. If one student has negative views toward the program and it’s evident to the other students then they will generally be worried about that student’s perception of them if they do participate – discouraging them from coming back. That’s why I feel it is necessary to present the entire message without objection, and then begin discussions.  

The 5^th period group is interesting, it began with 8 students and the first session was in the gym. I didn’t feel like I communicated the message very well, and actually thought that the 4^th period class went a lot smoother. The informality of the discussion, amount of students, and the informal setting combined with the resistance to the message was counterproductive. Towards the end of the group, I asked the students what they were planning to get out of it. A few were silent, but eventually a student said he wanted to “become a better person” and about half agreed. In a way this encourages me to believe that having a focused anti-sexual violence message might not recruit as many members as a broader one such as “making the world a better place.” Perhaps I’ll lay off that message a bit for the first session next time. The next week, 4 students returned. We did pre-surveys and watched Hip Hop, Beyond Beats and Rhymes for the entire session. I followed this up the next week with a “continuum of harm” of song lyrics, including songs by Lil Wayne, Nickleback, Muse, David Banner, and John Mayer. We analyzed the songs for about 40 minutes, basically filling the entire session. I think music is the most accessible venue for students to understand MyStrength. During this session, I got a new member, bringing the count up to 5. Something that I’ve done is check in with the students after activities. I usually do this by asking questions like: “How did you feel about this activity? Do you think there was something missing; is there a song or example you would have liked to see?” The feedback helps a lot. I also let the students know what’s coming. Before we encountered the dominant story/counter story concept in my School #1 group, I let them know that the dynamics of the group will change a bit, the discussions will get more serious and they will have to be more involved. 

- October (Part 2) will be posted here on CALCASA.org next Monday.

Used with permission www.unh.edu/preventioninnovations/

In the study recently ePublished in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Sharyn Potter and her colleagues at the University of New Hampshire have found that students who identify with the subjects in a poster campaign are more likely to take some action toward the prevention of violence against women.

The posters series, Know Your Power, depicts scenarios of students taking action as active bystanders to interrupt abuse. The poster above has this dialogue among three men at a party with alcohol:

“I’m gonna to get Kali so wasted she can’t say no.”

“That’s messed up. If you are going to do that you have to leave now.”

“If you want to get with a girl, that not the way to do it.”

The authors suggest:

Previous research indicates that in-person education programs tend to be more effective than passive intervention methods. Yet our findings show that the Know Your Power social marketing campaign raises awareness about the incidence of sexual violence on campus and the importance of taking action to reduce sexual violence on campus even when controlling for previous participation in a prevention program.

Indeed, changes come not only from education, but also from well planned marketing efforts.  And when education is coordinated with marketing we create an environment conducive to even more change.

It is interesting to read about how the authors measured the shifts. One tool is the “Readiness to Change” model adapted for sexual violence prevention which was developed by University of New Hampshire colleagues. More can be found in Victoria Banyard’s January 2010 article Sexual Violence Prevention: The Role of Stages of Change. Here are the different stages in this scale:

1. I don’t think sexual assault is a big problem on campus.
2. I don’t think there is much I can do about sexual assault on campus.
3. There isn’t much need for me to think about sexual assault on campus, that’s the job of the crisis center.
4. Sometimes I think I should learn more about sexual assault but I haven’t done so yet.
5. I think I can do something about sexual assault and am planning to find out what I can do about the problem.
6. I am planning to learn more about the problem of sexual assault on campus.
7. I have recently attended a program about sexual assault.
8. I am actively involved in projects to deal with sexual assault on campus.
9. I have recently taken part in activities or volunteered my time on projects focused on ending sexual assault on campus.

This scale suggests useful concepts that can support the measurement of sexual violence prevention.  By trying to have prevention efforts focus on making shifts in these nine areas, we have a useful theoretical model. I am interested in seeing this work informing more sexual violence prevention efforts.

Here is the full abstract and link to these articles.

Sexual Violence Prevention: The Role of Stages of Change

Banyard VL,  Eckstein RP,  Moynihan MM Journal of Interpersonal Violence, January 2010; vol. 25, 1: pp. 111-135.

Click here for a link to the article on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Sage Publications)

Increasing numbers of empirical studies and theoretical frameworks for preventing sexual violence are appearing in the research- and practice-based literatures. The consensus of this work is that although important lessons have been learned, the field is still in the early stages of developing and fully researching effective models, particularly for the primary prevention of this problem in communities. The purpose of this article is to discuss the utility of applying the transtheoretical model of readiness for change to sexual violence prevention and evaluation. A review of this model and its application in one promising new primary prevention program is provided, along with exploratory data about what is learned about program design and effectiveness when the model is used. The study also represents one of the first attempts to operationalize and create specific measures to quantify readiness for change in the context of sexual violence prevention and evaluation. Implications for program development and evaluation research are discussed.

Using Social Self-Identification in Social Marketing Materials Aimed at Reducing Violence Against Women on Campus.

Potter SJ, Moynihan MM, Stapleton JG. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2010; ePublished June 3, 2010

Click here for a link to the abstract on the journal’s web site.

(Copyright © 2010, Sage Publications)

Bystander-focused in person sexual violence prevention programs provide an opportunity for skill development among bystanders and for widening the safety net for survivors. A social marketing campaign was designed modeling prosocial bystander behavior and using content familiar to target audience members by staging and casting scenes to look similar to the people and situations that the target audience regularly encounters. We refer to this sense of familiarity as social self-identification. In this exploratory study, we attempt to understand how seeing oneself and one’s peer group (e.g., social self-identification) in poster images affects target audience members’ (e.g., college students) willingness to intervene as a prosocial bystander. The posters in the social marketing campaign were displayed throughout a midsize northeastern public university campus and neighboring local businesses frequented by students. During the last week of the 4-week poster display, the university’s homepage portal featured an advertisement displaying a current model of an iPod offering undergraduate students an opportunity to win the device if they completed a community survey. We found that among students who had seen the posters, those who indicated that the scenes portrayed in the posters looked like situations that were familiar to them were significantly more likely to contemplate taking action in preventing a situation where sexual violence had the potential to occur. Furthermore, students who indicated familiarity with the poster content were more likely to indicate that they had acted in a manner similar to those portrayed in the poster. Future directions based on findings from this exploratory study are discussed.

As we are half way through Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month and planning for Sexual Assault Awareness Month, I have been thinking about the role of awareness in prevention efforts. In a recent post, The Social Butterfly blog asks

So, why, fellow health marketing and do-gooders do we settle with “awareness-building?” To be frank, every time I’m in a meeting and I hear the word awareness, my skin crawls. Awareness is great–but there’s a time and place for it. I’m aware of Ritz crackers, but I buy Wheat Thins. I’m aware of Powerade, but I buy Gatorade. There are times I might know about your cause–but I won’t donate. Other times I might know you need help, but I won’t volunteer. I know exercise is healthy, yet I’m still sitting here typing this blog post. There is a reason to these behaviors and decisions. There are motivations, barriers, incentives, costs, and more.

For sexual violence and domestic violence prevention, I think we need to build our prevention efforts upon our successful awareness efforts.  30 years ago, people did not know about domestic violence and saw rape as only being committed by strangers. Today, our awareness efforts have made significant changes, but we still have work to do to prevent rape and domestic violence.

What do you think?

(Click here to see the entire Social Butterfly blog on “Questions to Prevent Awareness Fever.”)

Throughout the country, organizations are planning for upcoming “awareness” months, such as Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month in February, Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April and Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October. Most people are making decisions about what collateral items (also known as “stuff”) should be used.

The stuff includes many items such as ribbons, teeshirts, wristbands, water bottles, bumperstickers and temporary tattoos. PreventConnect recently distributed branded flash drives (preloaded with some of our podcasts).

Do these items make a difference to create the change we are seeking? In Craig Lefebvre’s blog Social Marketing and Social Change, he addresses this question with “four things that ‘stuff’ can do:”

1. mark tribal or brand identity (“I am one of us”) – if I self-identify as one, I will be more likely to act as one.
2. become a social object (‘I want to talk about this with you’) – when you see it, ask me about it. I want to share what I know or passionately believe in.
3. create ubiquity (‘It’s everywhere I go’) – raises the salience (not the same as awareness) of the issue/product/service/behavior and thus the normative judgment.
4. cue action (Whoops, almost forgot to do it’) – the best intentions still need prompts for behavior.

(click here for the full blog)

What stuff do you find helpful in prevention of domestic violence and sexual violence?

(11 min) David Lee, Director of Prevention Services for the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, and Chad Sniffen, Prevention Services Coordinator for CALCASA, talk with Brad Perry about California’s MyStrength Campaign – a statewide prevention initiative that uses social marketing techniques to reinforce messages about the ability of men and boys to take positive action to prevent sexual violence.

Developed by Men Can Stop Rape, 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.

[podcast]http://www.preventconnect.org/podcasts/V23%20Lee%20and%20Sniffen.mp3[/podcast]

(Go to Interview)

There is a robust discussion about the value of using “Myths and Facts” for violence against women prevention in the Prevent-Connect Email Group.  Clearly we want our audiences to have accurate information about sexual violence and domestic violence.  But what is the best strategy to do that?

When I look at surveys conducted by the Family Violence Prevention Fund and see changes in classroom presentations, I recognize that many of the myths from yesterday are not as strongly held as toady. With Rape Myth Acceptance scales, many practitioners find pre-test scores to be very high.  I attribute this to the success of rape and domestic violence awareness and prevention efforts.

Frameworks Institute suggests that “order matters” – if we restate a myth many member of the audience may take that information as reinforcement of the myth. One study compared using a “Myth and Facts” sheet vs. a “Fact” sheet about flu vaccinations.  The use of the Myths and Facts sheet led some people to believe the myths as facts. Another study suggested that warning people about false claims may actually reinforce the falsehood.

I asked about this question on a social marketing email group.  One person shared how in a tobacco prevention effort did dispel myths such as “Tobacco is cool” but they did not restate the myth; instead the campaign provided an alternative message: “Tobacco is foul.” Another person described how they tested using a myth and fact approach for drug prevention and STI prevention efforts.  In the testing they found that young people generally stop reading once they have read the myth acting as if they have just received confirmation or reinforcement of their existing beliefs/attitudes. Of course, these are not examples about violence against women.

How do we use these lessons in sexual violence and domestic violence prevention?  Do classroom exercise that have students discuss why a myth is true actually serve to reinforce the myth?  Personally, I like structuring prevention work so we catch people doing things right.  Let’s set up our discussions and activities to promote the frame we want.  There is a place to learn good critical analysis but that takes time and we need the appropriate environment.

What do you think?

I just returned from the Roots of Change: Men Sex and Justice Conference in Portland, OR. This was the 34th National Conference on Men and Masculinity and the 2nd Biennial Statewide Roots of Change Conference on Sexual Violence Prevention sponsored by the Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force and the National Organization for Men Against Sexism.

I first attended a National Conference on Men and Masculinity in 1983.  This was the first time I was exposed to a national network of men dedicated to challenging sexism. As a young man, I was excited to meet other men with a similar commitment.  I found many men who would serve as my role models in the coming years.

26 years later at this conference men and women gathered together to explore how we can engage men in efforts to prevent sexual violence.

There were many keynote speakers: Luoluo Hong of the University of Hawai’I at Hilo spoke about her experiences to support men to forma group to address sexual violence, Byron Hurt shared his journey to becoming an activists and filmmaker to remake masculinity, and Robert Jensen shared his thoughts on pornography.

Prevention Connection will release audio podcasts of some of these presentations soon. I presented on using a social marketing approach to rape prevention.  See my other blog posts about this work.

I just returned from leading a full-day workshop, Developing Comprehensive Prevention Strategies using Social Marketing, for the Missouri Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence in Columbia, Missouri.

David Lee and the staff of the Missouri Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence

I was welcomed to “Mid Mo” by more than 80 participants from all over Missouri where I reflected upon the lessons I have learned from social marketing and how those lessons can inform stronger sexual violence prevention programming.

By drawing upon the tools of marketing, I have learned to ask a series of questions that help guide the planning and development of prevention work. The first questions I ask are:

• Who are we trying to reach?  (Who is the primary audience? What do we know about them?)
• What do we want our primary audience to do?  (What behavior do we expect them to adopt?)

After further consideration of the benefits, barriers and ease to adopt the new behavior, then it is the time to select or develop communication strategies and activities to achieve the specific  goal s for that particular audience.

For more information and notes from the training in Missouri, click here.

Last week I spoke about using social marketing to advance sexual violence prevention at the Tennessee Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence’s first Rape Prevention & Education Institute. Over 50 prevention educators gathered to this two day institute that also included presentations from Tammy Lemmer of the Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, Rus Funk of Menswork, andDorothy Edwards of the University of Kentucky.

This is one of the many workshops I have given on social marketing over the last few years, including presentations for the US Army’s campaign to prevent sexual violence, Missouri Foundation for Health and many sexual assault and domestic violence coalitions.

I consider social marketing to be a valuable approach to ask the proper questions to develop a comprehensive prevention program. Social Marketing is defined as the use of marketing approaches to create changes in behavior that are for the social good.

Since I was in Tennessee I started with a look how Jack Daniels (brilliantly) markets whiskey.  The challenge for sexual violence prevention advocates is to draw upon the lessons of marketing to effectively “market” sexual violence prevention. CALCASA used sound marketing principles with its MyStrength Campaign to “sell” young men standing up and speaking out against sexual violence as a cool thing to do.

My favorite description of social marketing is that is it not as much “marketing” as it is “social.”  Ads, posts, public service announcements and other communication strategies are only some of the mechanisms to advance thoughtful work to reach a specific audience to adopt a specific desired behavior. What really leads to changes in the social norms and promote new healthier behaviors, is to find ways to mobilize the community to take action.  Marketing teaches us how to effectively frame sexual violence; social action encourages people to adapt positive behaviors.

Handouts from the presentation in Tennessee are available here.