A Call to Men

Prevention Connection‘s latest newsletter is pretty fantastic. It includes audio recordings from the 4th Annual A Call to Men conference (PDF), held last spring in NYC. If you’re not familiar with the project, A Call to Men “challenges men to reconsider their long held beliefs about women, in an effort to create a more just society. We achieve this by encouraging change in the behaviors of men through a re-education and training process that challenges sexism.”

Digital Safety: Cyberstalking

I love when readers (especially readers abroad) send me links I never would have run across otherwise: this summer in London, the UK hosted their inaugural digital safety conference, which “brought together thought leaders, policy makers, legal professionals, law enforcement agencies, government representatives, educators, industry leaders and those committed to protecting civil liberties to consider the health, reputation and environment of the digital world”.

Engaging Men

An interesting coincidence (if you believe in those sorts of things) happened yesterday. I received an email from a reader asking about resources to engage men in ending violence against women; and I checked my Facebook page last night and saw that EVAW had posted some info about one of Canada’s latest campaigns to engage men in ending violence, It Starts With You. So I’ve taken that as a sign from the Internet gods, and am doing a post today on the topic. It’s in no means comprehensive (in fact, consider it more of a jumping off point)–if you have more to add, please do so in the comments section so readers around the globe can benefit from our collective knowledge. My resources are, for the most part, US and Canadian. I would love (love, love) to hear about campaigns in other countries, as well.

Teen Dating Violence

Yesterday, I received an email from a reader looking for materials on teen dating violence. There are several sites addressing this issue right now. One is That’s Not Cool, which does a great job speaking directly to teens about stalking, harassment and violence. There’s also Break the Cycle, which has a boatload of free resources that would be great to have on hand as patient handouts (in English and Spanish), including safety planning workbooks for teens and for college students (PDF). They also publish a report on state laws each year–you can see how your state measures up here (OH gets an F) or download the full report (PDF).

Sexting Podcast

The Indiana Youth Institute has a podcast on sexting available on their website. I’m on the road with the Army this week and haven’t had a chance to listen to this one yet. But since there’s been a flurry of searches for “sexting” on the site recently, I figured this would be timely. I don’t even have any background on the speaker (just the sponsoring organization), so let us know if it’s worthwhile, please.

Sexual Violence Against Individuals With Disabilities

On July 22nd, from 2-3pm ET, OVC will be hosting a web forum on addressing sexual violence against individuals with disabilities. If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog, you know how the web forums work; if you’re a new reader (welcome!), you can read about how to participate here. Heather Kamper from Austin, TX will be facilitating the session. Participation is free and no registration is required.

For previous web forums, visit their archives list on the main page.

The (Economic) Cost of Violence

Everything can be looked at in economic terms, including violence. It’s important info to have at your disposal, because it can strengthen a grant proposal or negotiations with your healthcare system for an FTE or program. Enough’s been written on the subject that I figured it would be good to review the literature. I’ve chosen to focus mainly on the costs of violence against women. I’ll probably do a posting some day on youth violence, or gun violence, etc. Unless otherwise indicated, everything listed is full text (if it wasn’t available free online, you’ll have a link to free abstracts). I’m organizing these by pub date, with most recent at the beginning:

Working with LGBTIQ Survivors of Violence

OVC is hosting a web forum June 24th at 2pm on best practices for assisting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexed, and queer (LGBTIQ) survivors of violence. As with other OVC web forums, questions are submitted in advance and then discussed live during the foum. For information on how to participate click here. You can view previous web forum discussions here.

Inbox: Sexting, Pt. II

Looking through my inbox this morning, what do I find but an email alert from Medscape Emergency Medicine with a new article on sexting. This article has a decidedly healthcare bent to it, so I’m including it here. Sadly, there aren’t any CEs attached to it, but since we’ve so recently discussed the topic, I thought it would be a good follow-up.

Sexting

[Callout Card from That's Not Cool]

The Family Violence Prevention Fund has a relatively new page about sexting on their website, which in part discusses some of  the legal questions this activity raises. Sexting is essentially teens (often) sending text messages with sexual contact, and it seems like it’s received a flurry of media attention lately (you can check out major media outlet coverage here, here and here).

Sexual Assault Awareness Month

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The NSVRC has a variety of resources related to SAAM, all of which can be found on the dedicated pages of their site. This year’s theme is preventing sexual violence in our workplaces; view the current campaign here, including info about the SAAM Day of Action, April 8th.

Weekly Wrap-Up @ the Sustainability Blog

Probably the most important thing that happened over at the Sustainability blog this week was that we got our comments widget fixed (and our 1st conversations have begun)! Also this week:

• A webinar on Storytelling and Social Media
• Fieldstone Alliance‘s resources for opportunities in lean times, including current information on the economic stimulus funds
• A great discussion on recruiting new SANEs (and actually getting them onto your roster)
• Exploring the concept of storybanking and how it can help you garner support for your program

Next week I’ll be back in the CLE, posting regularly. Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Sexual Assault in the Military

Tuesday, the Department of Defense released a new report on sexual assault in the military. Those of us who do this work won’t find the results particularly shocking (no glibness intended in that statement), but they are disturbing, nonetheless. Tuesday night CBS Evening News did a report on the story. You can watch the video here. Wednesday, they followed up with a piece on whether US military policies endanger female soldiers (clip and story here).

Violence Against Native Women

Over at The Hub, they are featuring a page on Violence Against Native Women in North America. Aside from multiple short videos about the scope of the problem, there are also several good links. One of those is to Amnesty International‘s recent report, Maze of Injustice. Follow that link for even more (heartbreaking, disturbing, enraging, _______ your adjective here) information on the issue.

The Bandana Project

My friend Cathy, over at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, sent me a video she made for the Bandana Project. If you aren’t familiar with the Bandana Project it’s a a public awareness campaign aimed at addressing the issue of workplace sexual violence against migrant farmworker women in the United States. Esperanza: The Immigrant Women’s Legal Initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center launched this campaign in 2007.

You can view the short video after the jump.