Sexual Assault Prevention Program

The Athens Foundation has awarded a $3500 grant to the Sexual Assault Prevention Program (SAPP) at The Appalachian Peace and Justice Network (APJN). This grant comes at a crucial moment for the program. As of last November, SAPP has moved from Tri-County Mental Health to APJN, effectively tripling the size and amount of programming offered by the new agency. This boasts well for APJN, a small, grassroots, community oriented non-profit, but being housed at a smaller agency has increased overhead for SAPP at the same time when the Violence Against Women Act was stalled in Washington. “We got word months ago that VAWA had passed and that we might see some more of the money we are used to getting soon, but still no money has arrived,” says Program Coordinator, Sarah Fick. “We’re still waiting to see what happens with this sequestration, and we’re so thankful that the Athens Foundation can see us through this hard time.” The program was funded at about $8000 less this year by the Ohio Department of Health’s Rape Prevention Education Grant.

The Sexual Assault Prevention Program exists to provide free educational services toward the prevention of gender based violence and an end to rape culture. Fick travels to area Middle and High Schools as well as Southeast Ohio Regional Jail in order to delivery programming on a variety of topics including consent, media representations, healthy relationship skills, and bystander intervention. In addition to supporting her usual work, the Athens Foundation Funds will support new programming taken on by SAPP this year, including Athens Rock Camp for Girls and Hollaback Appalachian Ohio! Planning for this summer’s Rock Camp is well underway. This will be the third annual week long day camp and the first year the camp will be supported by SAPP. As of April 15th, SAPP has also helped to launch a new campaign to end street harassment under the name Hollaback Appalachian Ohio! This program focuses on on-line collective story telling that seeks to change the current narrative that street harassment is just a part of life by telling the counter story that harassment doesn’t have to continue and that all people should be able to feel safe walking down the streets of Athens. Hollaback! will utilize social media and their new blog as well as community forums to send their message loud and clear.  The six person organizing committee is also making plans to run regular trainings on self defense and bystander intervention in the Athens area. “We want to empower our community to create change, to stand up and confront bad behavior safely,” says Fick. “I’m really enjoying my work with Hollaback! It’s something people can really get behind and take part in. One of the hardest things about my work has been that people are very put off by the idea of talking about hard issues like sexual assault, but harassment is something everybody is familiar with. And in order to end rape, we also have to end harassment. We have to train a new generation that doesn’t just follow the status quo toward violent, entitled masculinity and weak, submissive femininity but seeks to grow toward human qualities like mutual respect, interdependence, and autonomy.” To learn more about Hollaback Appalachian Ohio! visit http://www.appalachianohio.ihollaback.org or look them up on facebook or twitter. To learn more about any of the free educational programming check out our About Us page.

April 15, 2013– Hollaback, an international organization dedicated to ending street harassment, launches in Athens, Ohio today.  According to the CDC, “Non-contact unwanted sexual experiences, including street harassment, is the most common form of sexual violence experienced by both women and men in the US.  On average, between 80%-99% of women report experiencing street harassment in their lives.”  Hollaback is now in over 25, with leaders speaking more than 11 different languages.
Sarah Fick, Program Coordinator for the Sexual Assault Prevention Program at The Appalachian Peace  and Justice Network says, “I’ve been living in the Athens area for over 10 years now, and the problem of street harassment only seems to be getting worse.  The college drinking culture that exists here only seems to be getting stronger and fueling other problems.  Hollaback Appalachian Ohio! will give us a platform to let everyone know that enough is enough, to send the message loud and clear that we’re not tolerating street harassment in our town anymore.  Our team hopes to complete a safety audit of our community as well as a couple of the smaller outlying communities in the Appalachian Ohio Region.  We plan to follow shortly thereafter with an intensive I Got Your Back campaign to get as many local folks as possible to speak out and act up to change the status quo and put an end to Street Harassment and Rape Culture in SE Ohio.”

Team Member, Gwen Storck says, “I joined Hollaback because I, like many college students, want an end to street harassment and the culture of rape and violence it supports.  Often, the problem of street harassment seems too big, too pervasive, and the silence that surrounds it can be daunting.  There are few solutions, and many students I know go their entire college life simply dropping their heads and hurrying past harassers.   I was excited when I learned that Hollaback was working to end this mess, and knew I had to be a part.”  Hollaback Appalachian Ohio! is run by a team of local community leaders who are deeply committed to working online and offline to end street harassment in their community.

Hollaback! Appalachian Ohio will run their local blog and organize their communities through advocacy, community partnerships, and direct action. The leaders of Hollaback Appalachian Ohio! are as diverse in their backgrounds as they are in their experiences of harassment.  The Hollaback! movement reports that 41% of site leaders are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer, 33% identify as people of color, 76% are under the age of 30, and 90% are women.
“We only have 8 or 9 years before the babies in strollers today start experiencing street harassment too.  Our children deserve better, we deserve better, and Hollaback Appalachian Ohio! is going to get us there.  Share your story and join the movement today.” said Hollaback! Executive Director Emily May.

New locations include Athens, GA; Appalachian Ohio; Belfast, Northern Ireland; LA, California; and Toronto, Canada, among others.

About Hollaback! Hollaback (ihollaback.org) is a nonprofit and movement to end street harassment powered by a network of local activists around the world.  We work together to better understand street harassment, to ignite public conversations, and to develop innovative strategies to ensure equal access to public spaces.  You can post your stories of harassment or bystander intervention to the Appalachian Ohio blog at http://www.appalachianohio.ihollaback.org.  Also, check our events page or like us on facebook to stay in the loop on upcoming events.

As we round the corner into an unusually cold spring, planning for this summer’s Rock Camp for Girls is beginning to heat up. We are now recruiting volunteers for this summer’s camp, which will be held July 7-13 at Arts West. The goal of the camp is to promote girls empowerment and leadership skills through collaborative music creation and performance in a mainly female identified space. In addition to music lessons, campers attend workshops in Women’s music history, deconstructing media messaging, stage presence, self defense, and more. The organizing committee would like to thank our community for its continued support through our second year in 2012 and give fair warning that we are about to be asking for your support again soon for our third camp coming up in July. We’ve been overwhelmed by the support you’ve given us through the donation of over 1000 hours in volunteer time from both local women and women from across Ohio and into Tennessee, donations of food for lunch and snacks for 60 people for 7 days, and financial contribution through our various benefit shows, grants, and fund drives. We couldn’t have done it without you. We hope that the success of our second year makes it clear that we have real stick-to-it-iv-ness and will be around for many years to come.

Of last year’s camp, one high school student named Mia said, “Out of all the camps I attended this summer, Rock Camp for Girls was the only one that made me feel better about the way I look and gave me a platform to speak my voice.” Kelly Huq of Athens East side said, “Athens Rock Camp for Girls turned my shy, introverted daughter into a young woman bubbling with confidence.” A camp counselor named Sarah said, “Athens Rock Camp for Girls is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been a part of. Watching these girls challenge themselves and grow over one short week is truly amazing.” This year, we hope to involve previous years’ campers in the benefit shows and info sessions leading up to the camp to keep their bands playing out in different venues in the Athens area. “Like” us on Facebook, and stay tuned for dates and events coming up soon. To find out more about how you can support the camp, please check out our new website at www.athensrockcampforgirls.com. There, you can find volunteer applications, contact information, and how to donate money, food, and old instruments. There are many different ways to volunteer, including full or partial days for the entire week of the camp or for only a day or two. Volunteer positions include music instructor, band coach, camp counselor, and cook. Everyone mark your calendars now for our final concert which will be held at Arts West on the eventing of Saturday, July 13th. With the formation of 5 to 6 new bands comprised of local girls ages 12-18, it will surely be an event that is not to be missed.

One in three teen are currently affected by Teen Dating Violence.  Together, we can change the stats!  The Center for Disease Control and the Ohio Department of Health consider violence against women, intimate partner violence, and sexual violence to be pervasive public health issues, but they also assert that these problems are preventable!  The Appalachian Peace and Justice Network and the Sexual Assault Prevention Program run free educational programming year round, working toward the goals of ending bullying, street harassment, sexual assault, and violence on the whole.  In addition to our normal programming, we’ll be reaching out to our community this month with additional displays in our libraries and school as well as public services announcements over our radio air waves and morning announcements in the schools.  We want you to know that we are here to help, and that we are dedicated to ENDING these problems.  Check out the Dating Bill of Rights below, and add your name to our list of pledges today!!!

DATING BILL OF RIGHTS

I have the right to:

• Always be treated with respect.
• Be in a healthy relationship.
• Not be hurt physically or emotionally.
• Refuse sex or affection at any time.
• Do things apart from my partner.
• End a relationship.

I pledge to:

• Always treat my partner with respect.
• Never hurt my partner in any way.
• Respect my partner’s sexual boundaries.
• Not be controlling or manipulative.
• Accept responsibility for myself and my actions. 

If you or someone you has been.are in a an abusive relationship, see our Resources for Survivors page.  For more information about how to talk to your kids about sex and/or teen dating violence, see our Resources for Parents and Teachers page.

Sign the pledge below!

The Appalachian Peace and Justice Network has been awarded almost $52,000 from the Ohio Department of Health to fund the Sexual Assault Prevention Program for the coming year!!!  The Sexual Assault Prevention Program has existed in one form or another for over 15 years and was housed at Tri-County Mental Health and Counseling Services up until this year when exiting Program Coordinator, Lauren Riley, began the process of changing agencies.  Tri-County’s primary focus is on providing services to individuals after an incident has already occurred where the Sexual Assault Prevention Program’s sole focus is on Primary Prevention or providing universal educational programming that seeks to stop potential perpetration before it happens.  This past summer, Lauren scoured her community for an organization dedication to prevention education and found fellow Prevention Educator and Director of the Appalachian Peace and Justice Network, Mara Giglio, to be the ideal ally.  The two advertised for the soon to be vacant position of Program Coordinator under the Appalachian Peace and Justice Network and hired local activist and Ohio University alumni, Sarah Fick.

The Sexual Assault Prevention Program is funded by the Ohio Department of Health’s Rape Prevention Grant, which recieves a portion of its funding from the Violence Against Women Act.  This year is the first time in VAWA’s history that Congress has attempted to erode its strength.  The Violence Against Women Act was signed into Law by President Bill Clinton in 1994.  With each reauthorization, it has always gotten stronger, until this year.  This year marks VAWA’s 18th Anniversary and an important year for us to show our support for its reauthorization.   Tomorrow, Wednesday November 14th will be a National Day of Action for the Reauthorization of VAWA.  For more information, visit www.4vawa.org.  For more information on the history of VAWA, visit the White House’s 1 is 2 many page.  The Sexual Assault Prevention Program applied for $60,000 for this year.  In past years, we have always gotten what we asked for.  This year is the first year that we got less.  We got about $8000 less.  This puts a huge dent in the amount of programming that we will be able to offer this year.  From where we stand, it seems that even if we were to get the full $60,000 and were able to maximize what our community can get out of that $60,000, there would still be more need for programming than we would be able to fill.

The Sexual Assault Prevention Program is the only program in SE Ohio that is focused solely on the primary prevention of sexual assault.  The program serves Athens, Meigs, Hocking, and Vinton counties by providing a wide array of free educational programming and workshops to elementary, middle school, high school, and college level classrooms, as well as to parents, community groups, and professionals.  For more information on services offered, check out our About Our Program page.  To schedule a workshop, contact Sarah at saprevention@gmail.com or 740-541-2976.

Sarah Fick recieved her Bachelor’s of Science in Education in 2003 and has recieved trainings in Mediation through the Athens Area Mediation Service as well as in Non-Violent Communication through the Compassionate Communicators of Central Ohio. She has a background in serving adults with developmental disabilities and has spent the past 6 years at Casa Nueva, a local worker-owned cooperative restaurant. While at Casa, she acted as member of the Board of Directors as well as a Human Resource Coordinator where she honed her skills in meeting facilitation, cooperative education, and accountability. Now, she is pleased to be bringing free educational programming aimed as universal primary prevention of sexual assault to your classroom, workplace, or community group. Email her at saprevention@gmail.com for more information on this important programming or how you can get involved.