Making a Difference - Canada

Are you familiar with the Making a Difference (MAD) Project? This exciting, innovative project was undertaken jointly with Making a Difference Canada. The stated purpose of the project is to "Make a Difference" by challenging the legal process in both the U.S. and Canada to more effectively prosecute sexual offenders. It is clear based on existing research that the criminal justice systems in the U.S. and Canada -- as in other countries -- are less likely to prosecute incidents of sexual assault if they do not resemble the stereotype of “real rape.”  In other words, if they do not involve a stranger with a weapon, severe physical violence, and victim injuries. 

The "Making a Difference" project was designed to address this problem, by facilitating reform in the U.S. and Canadian legal systems -- to challenge the status quo and more effectively prosecute adult and adolescent sexual assaults. 

Our partnership with Making a Difference Canada has extended beyond the completion of the MAD project, and we’d like to use this blog to highlight some of their work.

·         Making a Difference Canada spans 7 communities: Calgary & Edmonton, Alberta; Victoria, British Columbia; Halifax-Antigonish, Nova Scotia; Niagara Region, Ontario; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; and Whitehouse, Yukon. 

·         In collaboration with the Voices & Faces Project, the MAD Community in Edmonton hosted an event in June entitled, “We Are the Stories We Tell: A Testimonial Writing Workshop for Survivors of Sexual Violence, Domestic Violence and Trafficking.”

·         The MAD Community in Edmonton launched a poster campaign titled: “Don’t be that Guy”, which was then replicated in Halifax as part of their Sexual Assault Awareness Month activities in 2012.

·         The MAD Community in Halifax launched a new video campaign titled “Be More Than a Bystander” as part of their Sexual Assault Awareness Month activities in May (one month later than SAAM is held in the U.S.).

·         Making a Difference Canada also has a couple of webinars coming up:

o   “Working with Culturally Diverse Communities” on September 6^th at 1pm ET.

o   “Sexual Assault:  Integrating Investigation and Forensic Medical Examinations for Best Outcomes in Court” on September 21^st at 1pm ET.

 
Making a Difference Canada is also showcasing a game, developed by METRAC (Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children), titled: Play the Game; Sexual Assault, What it is. It is a new digital game challenging sexual violence against young people. Try it out!

A Statue Removed, and Still Warnings Will Go Unheeded By Roger Canaff, EVAWI Board President

As a rookie prosecutor in Alexandria, Virginia, I brought my first cases before an ancient and distinguished judge who at times had a penchant for the impeccable and brilliant aphorism. One he used when adjudicating minor traffic cases has stuck with me throughout the years. “The world is basically divided into two groups. The caught, and the uncaught.”

His meaning was simple: Folks, we’re all guilty of minor traffic violations. If you’re here, you’re probably just caught. If not, you’re uncaught, but only for now.

That is the Penn State Community in a nutshell. It is devastated. It is bewildered. It is ashamed. It is grieving, reflecting, adjusting and hopefully persevering. But what’s important to remember is that PSU is not doing these penances because it is unique or alone. Simply put, PSU is going through these things because its leadership was- to put it bluntly- caught. They were caught harboring a predator for at least sentimental and naïve reasons, and at worst for cynical, self-protecting ones. But as the reality of the sanctions settles and the pain to this remarkable and time-honored community is fully realized, it’s worth noting a basic and persistent truth: Predators like Jerry Sandusky are everywhere, and operating- as my fingers type these words- as efficiently as ever.

Sandusky’s circumstances were mournfully peculiar in that he was a god-like figure in his environment, backed by the most pervasive and defining aspect of the culture, Penn State Football. But far below these uncommon circumstances, predators like him have found havens, and are doing untold amounts of damage, in academic communities and organized social settings of all kinds, right this minute. Every venerable, time-honored and values-based institution has a predator problem. All that separates the exposed from the unexposed is the machinery of victimization, cloaking as it does- for a time- the horrors of the abuse and the cries of the abused.

If there is anything positive that can emerge from the deep sadness permeating PSU, it is not the belief- for other institutions- that “there but for the grace of God go we.” Rather, it’s the darker and more terrifying reality of “there we are as well- simply unexposed as such.” This, while desperately needed, will be the pill tragically un-swallowed by similar organizations watching events at PSU unfold.

Rather than do what they must, which is to take an unvarnished look at their own environments and the endless vectors for infiltration that exist, they will confidently and foolishly distinguish themselves somehow from Penn State and assure themselves that they “know” the mentors, coaches and leaders that direct and control their environments. They’ll fool themselves into believing, for a string of ironically specious reasons, that their venerable and respected enclaves are simply not the kinds of places that bad people would seek to infiltrate. Indeed, it is this terrible dichotomy- predators seeking prey and protection in an environment so antithetical to what they are- that has foiled so many great institutions blind to their own weaknesses and tricked into thinking they are somehow above the invisible but very real laws of osmosis that attract bad actors to good environments.

Rather than do the difficult but crucial work of self-examination, rather than seek transparency within their own leadership structure with the help of outside observers trained to assist in making best-practice recommendations, they will retreat to a pernicious blind-spot and convince themselves they are somehow oddly enlightened, even “blessed” with introspection and unusual clarity- again because of the sanctity of their mission, whatever it is.

Rather than engage internally in honest, open debate about whether they have at any time placed the reputation, value and productive capability of their institutions over the well-being of even the least notable of the people affected by it, they will delude themselves into believing they are led by an unassailable and internal moral compass.

And the suffering will continue, until the stone is finally rolled away and light is allowed to penetrate, wounding the institution that believed itself protected and impenetrable. But this damage can only follow the most shameful of all- the destruction of human beings who looked to it for the opposite of what they received.

Keeping SANE/SAFE Programs Healthy

The advent of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner and Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner (SANE/SAFE) programs has resulted in the increasing involvement of clinicians in the community response to victims of sexual violence. More than 750 programs now exist, according to the International Association of Forensic Nurses’ program registry. However, even as SANE/SAFE programs continue to be the norm in many parts of the US and Canada, their general health and sustainability isn’t a given. Many programs open to great anticipation only to quietly close a year or two later. Some programs are able to keep their doors open to patients, but may have problems responding consistently due to inadequate staffing.  What follows are some tips to consider in making sure your own community’s SANE/SAFE program stays healthy and sustainable for the long term: 

• Invest in people first. I have visited programs around the country and talked with countless nurses asking questions about how to raise money for a new colposcope or camera system. For many programs, however, the money really needs to be spent on the clinicians staffing the program. Investing in clinician education, call-pay and occasional pay raises are the kinds of investments that can make a real impact on program health and patient care. Most patients won’t see a difference if their care includes photographs with a $800 camera or an $8,000 camera system. However, they may benefit greatly from a clinician who has had the benefit of recent clinical education or networking with colleagues at conferences like EVAW’s annual conference or the IAFN Scientific Assembly. And with staff recruitment and retention being one of the most common challenges for SANE/SAFE programs, it’s important to remember that when clinicians feel valued and invested in they are more likely to stay on the staff roster. 

• Keep the focus on healthcare. SANE/SAFE programs are clinical programs, run by licensed healthcare providers who attend to the health and well being of patients who present with a chief complaint of sexual assault. They may also collect the sexual assault evidence collection kit, should the patient so choose. When SANE/SAFEs maintain this clinical focus, rather than shifting into an investigative role, patients have better health outcomes and the criminal justice system ultimately benefits (PDF). Moreover, programs may be more likely to retain (and obtain new) healthcare dollars for program support. Hospitals that see their SANE/SAFE program as integral to the health of the communities they serve, rather than as an adjunct to law enforcement are more likely to continue providing support. 

• Don’t run the program like a hobby. You would never dream of running a home health program or hospice nursing service without policies and procedures, staff evaluations and other structural components that ensure that the program is consistent in its operations and maintaining the highest standards of care. So make sure your program also has these fundamental building blocks in place (and ensure that they are regularly reviewed and updated as needed). 

• Develop a more accurate definition of success. While it is appropriate to examine the impact of SANE/SAFE programs on the criminal justice system, court outcomes are not a good way to measure program success. There are many reasons cases aren’t prosecuted or result in acquittals, and most have nothing to do with the quality of the SANE/SAFE exam. Clinicians who judge the success of their intervention on the number of guilty verdicts that come back in their cases can become frustrated and disheartened. As healthcare providers your markers for success should be measured in healthcare and patient impact terms. Are x percent of your patients receiving ______ (fill in the blank: advocacy services, emergency contraception, HIV prophylaxis, etc.)?  Are you reaching a broad group of patients that’s reflective of the community you serve? Do patients have positive feedback about your program when they talk with advocates and other victim service providers? Do patients get referred to your program by previous patients? Identifying relevant markers of success allows programs to see their impact. It also enables them to better craft arguments for funding support that keeps programs running. 

SANE/SAFE programs serve a unique role in the patient care arena, but their sustainability depends on many of the same key components as most other healthcare services. What I’ve described above are not the only issues that impact sustainability, but they are some of the most important, and an excellent place to start. I hope this gives you something to consider as you examine the challenges your own SANE/SAFE program may be facing. But I’d love to know—what are some of your recommendations for program health?

Jenifer Markowitz is the Medical Advisor at AEquitas: The Prosecutor’s Resource on Violence Against Women. She served as project manager for the National SANE Sustainability Technical Assistance Project at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, and continues working as a consultant on the next phase of that project, in conjunction with the International Association of Forensic Nurses. In her free time, you can find her at her personal blog, Forensic Healthcare Online.

The Joan Zorza Tribute Wall

We found this great blog post by Richard Zorza about our Joan Zorza Tribute Wall and wanted to share it with you rather than write an entirely new blog about it. 


Joan Zorza Wall of Honor Established by End Violence Against Women International

My general rule is not to promote fundraising on this blog.  But this is not business, it is personal.

End Violence Against Women International has established a Wall of Honor, to honor the work of my wife Joan, because, as they say:

Joan Zorza has dedicated her life to ending violence against women and children.  To recognize her tireless efforts on behalf of the victimized and often powerless among us, we dedicate this wall of tribute.

This virtual wall symbolizes the wall of support Joan built with her life’s work -- the wall of protection she created not only for her clients, but also for the countless victims whose lives were made better by Joan’s profound and far-reaching impact.

You buy "bricks" on the wall, which help finance scholarships to their conferences:

This wall will be built, brick by brick, with donations from those of us inspired by Joan’s life and work.  With each brick added to the wall, we honor her dedicated service.  More important, each brick represents another step toward continuing her life’s work.  When you buy a brick, the money is donated to a scholarship fund to provide training for professionals who are following in Joan’s footsteps.  Scholarships will be awarded to professionals who are similarly working to end violence against women and children, in order to attend the International Conference on Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, and Stalking hosted by End Violence Against Women International (EVAWI).

Bricks start at $10.  When you buy a "brick," you can leave a message, and the messages on the wall can be read by all.

Here is one message, this one from Lynn Hecht Schafran:

Joan: People often ask me how I can bear to work on such disturbing issues every day, and I say it is because I have extraordinary colleagues who inspire me to keep rolling the rock up the hill with them. You are Exhibit A. Thank you for your decades of unfailing commitment and belief that together we can make a difference.

So, thanks for your help in building the Wall.  You can see more about Joan's work by clicking on the link above the Wall.  More complete is her resume, including her lists of papers and speaking engagements.

You can also check out our website for more information about the Joan Zorza Tribute Wall, including how to donate so that others who are similarly working to end violence against women and children can attend the 2013 International Conference on Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, and Stalking hosted by End Violence Against Women International (EVAWI).

Free Webinar Opportunity on Victim Interviewing

We recently revised the OnLineTraining Institute module on Victim Interviewing, and thought it would be a good time to offer a FREE webinar on the topic. EVAWI Executive Director Joanne Archambault and Board President Roger Canaff are excited to partner up to present this important topic. The newly updated OLTI module walks participants through the stages and techniques for successfully interviewing sexual assault victims.

Join Us!

Thursday, August 9^th

10am-11:30am, PST

For more information, and to register, visit: http://bit.ly/Nbml9f

Annual Report Released

We recently released our 2011 Annual Report, and we’d like to share some highlights with you.

·     Since its inception in 2003, EVAWI has provided training for over 8,000 professionals from a wide range of disciplines and communities.  This training has been provided in 19 live conferences, 3 webinars, and 12 modules in the OnLineTraining Institute.

·     Our conference continues to grow tremendously. In 2007, we had 283 people in attendance. In 2008, that number increased to 423 and then again to 609 in 2010. In 2011, we had 834 registrants for our conference in San Diego!

·     In September 2011, we announced that the OLTI is now available for free. Following this announcement, a total of 948 people registered for the OLTI by the end of the year. 

·     Throughout 2011, the EVAWI website welcomed over 46,000 unique visitors, and tracked almost 400,000 page views – this is over 1,000 page views per day and an average of about 8 page views per unique visitor.  Over 12,700 documents were downloaded from the EVAWI website. 

·     EVAWI’s Executive Director Joanne Archambault and Research Director Kim Lonsway remain busy publishing articles for various professional outlets such as The Journal of Forensic Nursing, as well as serving as co-editors for the Sexual Assault Report.

·     On September 13, 2011, Joanne Archambault attended ceremonies hosted by Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, to commemorate the 17th anniversary of the historic passage of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994.

·     Throughout the process of modifying the definition for forcible rape that is used for data collection in the Uniform Crime Report (UCR), EVAWI staff provided expert consultation to the White House Office on Women and Girls as well as the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. We’ve updated our OLTI modules to reflect this significant change, and we plan to offer best practice recommendations to guide future directions for research, practice, and reform. 

·     Our Start by Believing public awareness campaign won a 2011 Platinum Award from the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals.

 “When I reflect back on our accomplishments this year, I have to say the one that means the most to me is the launch of the Start By Believing Campaign.” Joanne Archambault

"If I only knew then what I know now..." Why I founded EVAWI and launched the Start by Believing campaign

As a young Child Abuse detective in the early 80’s, I often heard people say that victims were afraid of reporting to law enforcement.  Whether intended or not, I interpreted that to mean that we in law enforcement weren’t doing our job right.  As a detective who worked hard on my cases, I felt I did everything I possibly could for the victims whose cases I was investigating.  My child abuse cases, in particular, kept me up at night because I had so many open investigations at any given time and I knew that the results of my work often determined whether we were going to prevent a child from further harm, let alone prosecute the perpetrator.  So, it hurt to hear this because it felt like all the fingers were pointing to the police as the problem.  I didn’t want to believe it, but I had to understand that whether I agreed or not,  it was the perception by many members of the community which I needed to pay attention to.

It took me another decade working these cases before I realized that victims are not just afraid of law enforcement.  What I didn’t know back when I was working Child Abuse is that victims of domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault are not busting down the doors at rape crisis centers, shelters or medical facilities either.  I often heard professionals citing horrible statistics about the large number of people who never report to law enforcement -- up to 80%.  At this point in time, I was a Sergeant in Sex Crimes and the Unit was handling approximately 1,000 felony sexual assaults a year.  I thought the researchers and advocates were crazy.  If they were right, there were another 4,000 cases occurring in the City of San Diego each year, and this was incomprehensible to me. 

It also took me a long time to realize that victims don’t often report to law enforcement first.  They usually disclose to loved ones, co-workers, classmates and friends first, and -- depending on how that person responds, whether with support or blame -- this often determines whether the victim will in fact reach out to law enforcement. 

When the victim does report, law enforcement is often frustrated because they don’t understand why victims appear uncooperative, hesitant, or resistant about participating in an investigation and possible prosecution.  It took me far too long to figure out that it wasn’t that they were uncooperative; it was that they are only able to manage so much at a time.  We in law enforcement think that the investigation and prosecution is the victim’s priority.  Yet this is often not the case.  What I found is that victims of sexual assault are often just struggling to get out of bed every day, get their kids off to school, stay in class, stay employed so they don’t lose their housing, or stay in the country or in the military, whatever the case may be.  Victims are trying to survive and this is their priority.  For most victims, until those basic needs are met, they just aren’t able to make the investigation and prosecution of their offenders a priority.  We have to learn to do police work differently.  Instead of demanding that victims meet our needs, we have to learn to meet victims where they are in a very difficult process.  We have to change the way we’ve been doing police business for decades because what we have been doing isn’t working for victims and as a result, we are unable to make our communities safer by holding perpetrators accountable.

People are often curious about why I founded EVAWI.  I loved my job at the San Diego Police Department.  I made very good money with great benefits.  I never worried how my paycheck was going to be funded, I never thought about the costs of doing business and I had six weeks’ vacation a year -- more if I worked overtime and took it in comp time.  I admired and enjoyed the officers and detectives I had the privilege to work with.  Yet, I knew that across the country and around the world, law enforcement was not receiving the training they need to do a better job working these cases.  I also believe that most law enforcement officers join their Departments because they want to help people.  I believe that most work hard to do the best job they can, and most are good people who sacrifice a lot to do a job that many people don’t understand, appreciate, or care to do themselves.  However, I found that law enforcement professionals often either didn’t receive any training about sex crimes -- or if they did receive training, it gave information that is the exact opposite of the training they should be receiving (e.g., training on stranger sexual assault versus non-stranger sexual assault, interview and interrogation of suspects and not training on interviewing victims especially those who have been impacted by traumatic crimes).  The truth is this work is a calling for me, and one that I am not always thrilled with.  If I had known anything about non-profits, I would never have started one.  

There are many days that I think I was absolutely nuts, but our 10^th year anniversary for EVAWI is coming up in just a few months, and I am really proud of our many accomplishments.  We just finished our 2011 Annual Report, and I encourage you to take a look if you are interested in hearing more about our many activities this last year.  One I am most proud of is the Start by Believing campaign.

The idea of the Start by Believing campaign had been a dream of mine for a very long time.  Based on my 30 years of experience as an Officer, Detective, Sergeant and training many officers and other professionals across the country, I came to realize that even when the patrol officer, detective and the prosecutor do everything right, we are often limited in our ability to successfully hold perpetrators accountable because in the end, your neighbors, mother, brother, cousins, and friends are the people sitting on our juries.  All of these people bring their own personal experience and misconceptions about sexual violence to the courtroom.  Those of us in the field know how difficult it is to take sexual assault cases to court and how very difficult it is to secure a conviction.   We know that victims of sexual assault are often at least partially blamed for their sexual assault based on perceptions of the amount of risk they might have been taking at the time of the sexual assault.  I have found that if you asked the average citizen if in fact they would blame a victim of sexual assault for a rape if she had been drinking alcohol under age, they would most likely say no.  Yet, we know this is exactly what happens across the country at many different levels -- at the point of the first disclosure, medical and mental health consultations, the initial report, the detective’s follow-up investigation, the prosecutor’s charging decision and ultimately the jury.

The intent of the Start by Believing campaign is to change our response to sexual violence by focusing on connecting professionals and strengthening the community’s response to violence against women on every level, including the professionals tasked with responding to victims and across society as a whole.  If you have not yet visited the Start by Believing web site at www.startbybelieving.org  please do.  I am hopeful that you’ll take the next step and make your own personal pledge to start by believing.

Joanne Archambault,
Executive Director & Founder, EVAWI

Spotlight on Cuyahoga County, Ohio

Exciting things have been happening in Cleveland, Ohio! The county recently developed a county-wide policy on how to investigate sexual assault cases. This new policy has been approved by the county Police Chiefs’ Association, and it is expected that most of the departments in Cuyahoga County will adapt them. A recent article in The Plain Dealer details the new policy, which is the result of months of work by police, prosecutors, nurses, and victim advocates.

The policy includes detailed instructions on where to take a victim of sexual assault for medical treatment and evidence collection. The policy also informs law enforcement on how the victim may react to the trauma, and how it can impact the investigation.

The goal of the new policy is to have more victims come forward, a result of a more compassionate, consistent approach to sexual assault investigations throughout the county.

At EVAWI, we strongly encourage a coordinated community response to sexual assault. Cleveland professionals offer a wonderful example of how community members can come together to create positive change for victims of sexual assault in the criminal justice system. You can start a dialogue in your own community too! A great place to start is by participating in the OnLine Training Institute , and then taking that information back to your local community response team.

Check out the video on the new policy.




Alison Jones-Lockwood,
Social Media/Outreach Coordinator, EVAWI

OnLine Training Institute is being updated!

Staff at EVAWI has been working on updating the content of several of the OnLine Training Institute (OLTI) modules. The OLTI was developed to bring state-of-the art training to anyone who is interested, on the topic of criminal justice response to sexual assault. One of the many benefits of offering training online is that we can continually update and improve the content.

In the OLTI module on Victim Impact, we incorporated diverse survivor perspectives throughout the module. We felt was more effective than developing a single, stand-alone module on "special victim populations," because we can better integrate the examples into our general understanding of the impact of sexual victimization. It is therefore more likely to be helpful in crafting an effective response.

In the OLTI module on Clearance Methods for Sexual Assault Cases, we updated the Uniform Crime Report’s (UCR) new definition of Forcible Rape, after FBI Director Robert Mueller officially approved a new, more comprehensive, definition of Forcible Rape in December 2011.

In the OLTI Module Effective Victim Advocacy in the Criminal Justice System, many of the resources in the original OLTI training module had become outdated and no longer available, updated and currently available in a different location, or moved to another website.  To ensure that these resources remain accurate, this OLTI training module has now been updated to reflect these changes.

If you haven't already registered for the OLTI, we encourage you to do so. And if you have, you will want to make sure you review the recently updated material.

What will happen to VAWA?

As many of you know, The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA IV) is up for re-authorization this year. VAWA was originally signed into law in 1994, and has since been re-authorized in 2000 and 2005. VAWA is a critical piece of legislation that provides funding for investigation and prosecution for violence against women, as well as funding for sexual assault and domestic violence programs across the country. VAWA, like EVAWI, encourages initiatives that strengthen the community response to violence against women.

New provisions were included this year to add protections for specific populations such as for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) community, Native American community, and immigrant victims of sexual assault.

This year, unlike any previous re-authorization, VAWA has become a forum for political debate. While the Senate overwhelmingly passed the version including the provisions mentioned above, the House passed their own, dramatically different, version last week. The House version does not include the provisions listed above. Both sides are currently refusing to negotiate on each other’s bill. 

Where does this leave us? VAWA actually expired last fall, and many programs are currently relying on temporary funding to keep their doors open.  Many programs are concerned about what this means for continued funding for their much needed services to victims of sexual and domestic violence. 

Welcome to the New EVAWI Blog!

We at End Violence Against Women International(EVAWI) decided it was about time we started a blog! We hope to use this new blog to reach more people who can help us in our effort to share our vision: a world where gender-based violence is unacceptable; where perpetrators are held accountable, and victims receive the compassion, support, and justice they deserve.

In this weekly blog, you’ll find out what’s happening around EVAWI, as well as information on the various projects we are working hard on. You’ll hear tidbits from staff, some board members, and even a few guest bloggers.

EVAW International was founded in January 2003 by Joanne Archambault in order to educate the general public and public safety workers about the crimes of sexual assault and domestic violence. EVAWI seeks to inspire and educate those who respond to gender-based violence, equipping them with the knowledge and tools they need to support victims and hold perpetrators accountable.