How Do We Prevent?
Primary prevention of intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual assault is a systematic process promoting healthy environments and behaviors, resulting in the reduction of the likelihood and the frequency of intimate partner violence and sexual assault.
Primary prevention IS NOT:
- A one-time program or event
- One skill-building session
- One protocol
Primary prevention IS:
- Development of social norms and social environments that create, support, and sustain positive behaviors and healthy relationships
- Promotion of comprehensive and multidisciplinary approaches to preventing violence against women and girls before it occurs by impeding the development of perpetrators
Primary prevention will require true social change. Primary prevention requires on-going conversation, examples of what healthy relationships and interaction are, among other things, to make structural and social change a reality. This change will include a process of changing the attitudes and beliefs that lead to specific behaviors. It also means the acknowledgement that we cannot just accept the world the way it is and expect that the problems will go away.The following are principles for effective prevention of intimate partner violence and sexual assault:
- Individual-level influences: personal factors that increases likelihood of an individual becoming a victim or perpetrator of violence.
- Interventions: target social/cognitive skills – counseling, therapy, and educational sessions;
- Interpersonal relationship-level influences: factors emerging from relationships with peers, intimate partners, and family members.
- Interventions: family therapy, bystander intervention, parent training;
- Community-level influences: factors from community and social environments. (schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods).
- Interventions: impact climate, systems and policies in a given setting and;
- Societal-level influences: larger macro-level factors that influence sexual violence. (gender inequality, cultural or religious beliefs, societal norms, and policies that contribute tensions between groups of people.
- Interventions: collaborations by multiple partners to change laws and policies related to sexual violence and gender inequality.
We Provide:
SHRCC’s staff are trained experts in providing education, training, and prevention programs to youth and adults. We believe in starting early with youth by implementing multi-session prevention programs that promote healthy relationships and bystander intervention. Our goal is to eliminate the root causes of domestic and sexual violence by stopping it before it occurs. By engaging youth in prevention efforts, we believe it will help to change social norms and attitudes that tolerate and condone violence.
College Prevention Programs
College educations center around personal violence awareness and prevention. With college age students (18-24 yrs old) being the highest demographic for dating abuse and sexual assault, SAFE Homes-Rape Crisis Coalition (SHRCC) has made it a priority to work with local colleges by offering free, effective prevention programs for both students and staff. SHRCC can provide individual educations and also collaborate for campus-wide awareness programs.
Programs for Student Groups:
- Step Up! – Bystander Intervention Training
- Escalation Workshop – Film Based Program discussing Dating Violence
- That’s Not Love – Healthy vs Unhealthy Relationships
- Specialty Topics – Stalking, Consent, Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, 101 classes, prevention, the role of alcohol, date rape drugs, victim advocacy, domestic/sexual violence definitions and laws, emotional & social dynamics, victim advocacy, and volunteering opportunities
Programs for Staff:
- Dating Violence – Dynamics Among College Students
- Sexual Assault – Awareness, Response, and Prevention
- Interpersonal Violence
- Mandated Reporting
- Title IX
- Clery Act
- NCAA Inclusion – Gender Equity
- SHRCC Services & Local Resources
- Campus Climate Surveys
Prevention Strategies include:
- Focus on changing norms to change behavior
- foster comprehensive and integrated systems for prevention
- Engage community leadership / be responsive to community needs and strengths
- Promote and model positive behaviors
- Invites men as stakeholders
- Emphasize role of bystander intervention
- Focus on risk factors and assets
- Build on existing assets and efforts
Prevention Programs Available in Spartanburg, Cherokee and Union County:
- Primary Prevention for K-5, Middle, and High School
- Bystander Intervention on Campus or Community
- Campus Sexual Assault Prevention
- Community Health Fairs
- School Health Fairs
- Community, Civic and Religious Groups
- Professional Training