Lindy Aldrich, Deputy Director of the Victim Rights Law Center, led today’s web conference on working to improve survivor-centered institutional response to sexual violence.  She addressed common challenges that arise when enforcing policy as well as the intersection of our work with the Office on Civil Rights Dear Colleague Letter issued in April 2011.  Campuses dialogued on how overall implementation and enforcement requires strategy and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Materials from today’s web conference (the audio recording will be made available later):

Once the policy is written (pdf)

Audio recording of Once the Policy is Written (mp3)

Text chat transcript (pdf)

As sexual assault awarness month approches in April, here is a webinar as part of a larger series offered by Jewish Women International on campus sexual assault with guest speakers from CALCASA’s Campus Program and The University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Sexual Assault on College Campuses:
How DV Providers Can Help

Join us on Thursday, April 14, 2011
12 to 1 pm ET

It has been a year since Yeardley Love was murdered on her UVA campus. We know that sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking occurs on college campuses. But we don’t know what, if anything has changed.  Join us as we look at a model program at UW- Madison that provides a multidisciplinary and survivor centered approach in coordinating services and prevention efforts to better serve students, providers and community members at large. This webinar will address the challenges campuses face in ending sexual violence, review how community based organizations can work with campuses as well as discuss opportunities for collaboration with funding programs offered by the federal government.

Leading the discussion:

Dan Esparza, is the Director of Campus Program at the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA). The Campus Program is a federal grant program through the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) focusing on reducing sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking on college campuses, and includes over 100 campuses as part of the program.

Carmen Hotvedt, Violence Prevention Specialist and project director for the campus grant program at UW-Madison. In her role, Carmen works with students, faculty, staff, and community organizations to further a spectrum of violence prevention through programmatic initiatives, systems advocacy, and coordinated response models. A queer feminist activist working to end violence against women since 1996, Carmen is a former staff member of the Montana Coalition Against Domestic And Sexual Violence, the Toledo, Ohio, YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter, the University of Toledo Sexual Assault Education and Prevention Program, and PRIDE! Montana.

Livia Rojas, is the Training & Resource Coordinator of the Campus Program at the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA). Livia provides technical assistance on coordinated community response efforts to college and university campuses funded by the U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women to reduce sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking.  Prior to joining CALCASA in 2009, Livia worked at Columbia University School of Social Work, Sanctuary For Families in New York City, and the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial Counties.

Agenda:

Campus environment: an overview of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking on campus
Brief description of U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women Campus Grant Program- What it is and what it is not
UW- Madison Program- What are the issues on campus;  how it affects students; and how advocates outside of campus can collaborate
Campus & Community Collaborations for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking
If you are not already a member of the National Alliance, join now for this year (September 2010 – June 2011) and get this call for free. Non-Members $25.

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On Tuesday, March 30, 2010 from 11.00-12.30 p.m. (PST), the Campus Program will host a webinar on “A coordinated team response to assault survivors: understanding survivor behavior responses.”  Our guest speaker is Roger Canaff who will address the issue from a CCRT perspective.  To register for the webinar, please check the listserv for instructions.  If you have any questions, please contact your TA Coordinator.

Summary

Students who report a sexual assault are often viewed with skepticism.  Should a student decide to file charges, survivors of sexual violence often encounter many challenges on campus, as well as during the investigation/prosecution of a case.  One challenge survivors often experience occurs when their behaviors does not match what society expects from victims.  For instance, after being assaulted, a student may call their friend or take a shower instead of reporting the incident to law enforcement.  Such behaviors are perceived to be counterintuitive. For this reason, it is critical for law enforcement and judicial affairs to further enhance their understanding of survivor behavior and victimology in order to be more sensitive towards the survivor and to also be better equipped to engage in an investigation process that will ultimately lead to successful prosecution.

Speaker

Roger Canaff has lectured to Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners nationwide on their role in the legal process, and has lectured to physicians and others in the medical field as well. He has trained nationally on issues related to juvenile crime, sexual assault prosecution, child abuse and related issues. In 2003, Roger joined the staff of the National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse at the American Prosecutors Research Institute in Alexandria, Virginia as a Senior Attorney. In 2005, he returned to active prosecution and relocated to New York City where he worked in the Child Abuse and Sex Unit of the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.  Roger took a position as a Highly Qualified Expert in June 2009 and is working for the Department of the Army specializing in assisting military prosecutors in investigating and prosecuting sexual assault cases within the armed forces.

Objectives

1. To understand the behavior of sexual violence survivors in order to enhance the law enforcement investigation and prosecution processes.
2. To learn tools that can be integrated into the work done by CCRT members.

Materials (available after the webinar)

CALCASA is excited to have Brett Sokolow, Esq. discuss consent during CALCASA’s last webinar of the year on December 1.  To register, please check the Project Director’s listserv for the link and instructions.  The powerpoint, recording and text chat transcription will be made available shortly after the webinar on December 1st.  If you have registration questions, please contact Livia Rojas livia@calcasa.org

The November webinar has been rescheduled for Tuesday, December 1, 2009.  We are excited that the Last Webinar of 2009 will be hosted by nationally recognized speaker Brett Sokolow.

Consent on College Campuses
Presenter:  Brett Sokolow
Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 11:00 a.m. PST

Brett Sokolow to speak at CALCASA's December webinar

Brett Sokolow is the Managing Partner of the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (NCHERM), a national multidisciplinary risk management consulting firm.   Through NCHERM, Sokolow has consulted with over 1,300 colleges, universities, schools and military institutions in the US and Canada.  He has eleven years of experience helping clients to enhance the safety and security of their communities by strategically addressing high-risk health and safety issues.

For registration information, please check the Project Directors listserv, otherwise contact Livia Rojas at livia@calcasa.org.

Student demographics at colleges/universities across the United States vary from campus to campus. In an effort to outreach and provide more culturally relevant services that relate to violence against women, CALCASA’s webinar on “Working With Underserved Communities” aims to highlight the complexity surrounding intersecting identities and the urgency of building capacity amongst providers by having experts in the field address the challenges and discuss how campuses are serving diverse needs.

CALCASA’s next webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, September 29, 2009.  Please check the Project Directors listserv for registration details. If you did not receive an email, please contact Livia at livia@calcasa.org.

Presenters include:

• Rachel Griffin, Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in Department of Speech Communication;
• Sandra Harrell, Director of Accessing Safety Initiative at Vera Institute of Justice; and
• Patricia Duffett, Sexual Assault Counselor/Advocate at Anti-Violence Project

The CALCASA Campus Program hosted the August 2009 webinar on “Achieving the Minimum Standards for OVW Campus Grant Programs.” It was facilitated by the Office on Violence Against Women Program Managers with brief overviews by select campus grantees who provided best practices that their campuses utilized to achieve particular minimum standards.

August 2009 Webinar Powerpoint
August 2009 Webinar Text Chat

In July, Daniel S. Carter with Securities on Campus, Inc. presented on the Clery Act Update. Grantees had the opportunity to ask questions pertaining to the complexity of the updates and how they impact their respective campus. Daniel made great use of the text chat where grantees posed their questions. If you missed the webinar and want to access the powerpoint and text chat, you can download the documents.

• July Webinar Text Chat Transcript
• PowerPoint Presentation

Higher education has become increasingly diversified over the last few years, not only racially/ethnically, but also in terms of sexual identity/orientation and disabilities. Given the stigma surrounding survivors of violence, individuals that identify with underserved communities often face additional challenges particularly when accessing resources.

For this reason, it is of critical importance to continuously re-examine interventions to ensure they are culturally specific, as no one model fits all.

Panelists will:

1. Identify barriers related to working with specific under-served communities
2. Discuss existing and culturally congruent prevention interventions
3. Provide additional resources that are culturally specific

For more information on the panelists and registration instruction, please check the Project Directors listserv. Otherwise, contact your respective CALCASA Training & Resource Coordinator Althea Hart or Livia Rojas.