View this as a webpage

Online Survey for Community Input to the Safe Harbor for All Strategic Plan

The Safe Harbor for All Strategic Planning Team invites community members to share their feedback and wisdom for the Safe Harbor for All strategic planning process. This is a great opportunity for those who are interested in participating and have not done so yet.

The survey will help the planning team identify potential impacts of policy changes on the health, wellness, and dignity of adults involved in commercial sex, including victim/survivors of trafficking and exploitation. Participants are invited to share knowledge and perspectives on relevant criminal issues, availability and access to prevention and intervention services for adult victim/survivors of sexual exploitation and trafficking, unintended consequences of any policy changes, and identification of intersections with other areas of oppression.

The online survey is anonymous and confidential. The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. The planning team is looking to hear from individuals with expertise on the issues of sex trading, sex work, and sex trafficking to help inform recommendations to the Minnesota Legislature. This includes people with personal experience in selling/trading sex, and systems professionals whose work brings them close to these issues.

If you have already participated in the Safe Harbor for All strategic planning process, you do not need to complete the survey. 

Take the survey.

If you have any questions about the community engagement portion of the Safe Harbor for All Strategic Plan, please contact Lauren Martin via email at mart2114@umn.edu.

Registration now open for the National Sexual Assault Conference

This year the National Sexual Assault Conference will be held in Anaheim, CA, at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel August 29-31, 2018. The theme of the conference is "Bold Moves: Ending Sexual Violence in One Generation," and there will be 119 workshops held over the course of three days. The opening Plenary Session will include Tarana Burke, African American civil rights activist and founder of the #MeToo Movement. 

Upcoming Webinar: Let’s Talk About Sexual Health to Support Sexual and Domestic Violence Prevention

Working to prevent sexual and domestic violence goes hand in hand with promoting healthy sexuality, media literacy and healthy relationships. According to CDC’s technical packages to prevent sexual violence and intimate partner violence, evidence shows that teaching safe and healthy relationship skills to adolescents and promoting healthy sexuality are strategies and approaches that can prevent violence. This web conference will explore how conversations about sexuality and pornography can support, advance, and strengthen sexual and domestic violence prevention. Join PreventConnect for the webinar on Wednesday, May 30, 2018 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. to hear from authors and implementers of curricula that integrate sexual health promotion, including porn literacy, into sexual and domestic violence prevention and to learn what others are doing in their local communities.

2018 Status of Women and Girls in Minnesota

Since 1990, the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota has conducted research to inform its grant making and policy work. Launched in 2009, Status of Women & Girls in Minnesota is an ongoing collaborative research project of the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota Humphrey School’s Center on Women, Gender & Public Policy. Periodically, data specific to Minnesota women and girls are gathered and analyzed in economics, safety, health, and leadership. The project represents a unique approach to research by using a gender-race-place-equity lens. The data reviewed and included here come from published reports produced by government agencies and nonprofits, and original gender-based analysis of publicly available datasets (American Community Survey, Minnesota Student Survey, and others).

Sign up for MNCASA’s Prevention Listserv

The Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MNCASA) has a listserv that SVPN readers may want to sign up for. MNCASA’s Prevention Listserv is for anyone interested in the prevention of sexual violence. Within the listserv e-mails you receive information around prevention initiatives, resources, and events/activities in Minnesota. Some information will be directly from MNCASA and some will be from those around Minnesota doing prevention work. This listserv is a great opportunity to stay informed and find ways to be involved! If you are interested in being a part of MNCASA’s Prevention listserv, please send a note to prevention@mncasa.org.

Be that One Caring Adult

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) recently released a new e-learning course titled, “One Caring Adult.”  This three-part course for teachers and other school professionals consists of seven videos and a workbook that provide information, resources, tools, and tips on how to create a trauma-informed classroom. Throughout the course you will hear from multiple experts including a teacher, a psychologist, a sexual assault advocate, and a trauma specialist. The accompanying workbook will guide you through the course. We encourage advocates to share this course with the educators they work with to help build trauma-informed classrooms to better serve children and create a safe and comforting space for all students.

Uber Changes Policies to Prevent Sexual Violence

Changing organizational policies and practices is an important part of preventing sexual violence. Uber has recently been in the news due to their handling of sexual violence within their company headquarters as well as among their drivers. Uber has responded to sexual violence within their company and they have made some important changes to increase transparency and give survivors more choices. Below are a few of the actionable steps Uber is taking:

• Uber will no longer require riders, drivers or employees to arbitrate their individual claims of sexual assault or sexual harassment.
• Uber will give survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment the option to reach a settlement with Uber without a confidentiality requirement covering the facts of their experience.
• Uber commits to publishing a safety transparency report that will include data on sexual assaults and other safety incidents that occur on the Uber platform. Going further, Uber hopes to open-source their taxonomy and methodology, developed in partnership with experts, so they can encourage others in the travel and transportation industry to take this step, too.

Here’s the blog with all of the details. Last month, Uber announced new safety features in the app and improvements to the screening process and they hope today’s changes will advance the conversation about ending sexual violence and harassment.

Contact Mary Hopkins at mary.hopkins@state.mn.us to submit stories to the sexual violence prevention newsletter.

Manage Preferences  |  Unsubscribe  |  Help  |  health.state.mn.us