27 Jul NYSCASA Monthly Digest – August 2021

Do you have announcements that you would like NYSCASA to share in our Monthly Digest? Email submissions with “Newsletter” in the subject line to info@nyscasa.org.

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Coalition News

Suspension of Operations at the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault

NYSCASA is saddened to report that the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault has suspended operations as of June 16, 2021. NYSCASA thanks the Alliance staff, interns, and volunteers for their tireless advocacy with and for survivors of sexual violence. NYSCASA is collaborating with rape crisis centers in New York City and throughout the state to ensure that survivors and advocates are able to receive continued support during this time.

Survivors based in New York City seeking assistance can contact Safe Horizon’s 24-hour hotline at 212-227-3000, or locate your local rape crisis center on our public directory (search by county): https://nyscasa.coalitionmanager.org/contactmanager/contact/publicdirectory

St. Peter’s Crime Victim Services Fall 2021 Virtual Support Groups

NYSCASA member program St. Peter’s Crime Victim Services is offering a variety of free virtual support groups, beginning the week of September 13, 2021. The groups will run for 10 weeks. Individuals will need to attend at least 8 of the 10 weeks in order to participate. Click here to learn more about what support groups will be offered.

In order to register, individuals must:

• Be a victim/survivor of a crime
• Be receiving additional support (from SPCVS, another victim assistance program, or another mental health provider)
• Complete a brief intake with the SPCVS staff person who is co-facilitating the group
• Be 18 years or older

Registration is required by September 3, 2021. Individuals who are interested in joining any of these groups should email the contact listed with the group name as the subject line, and include their name, contact information, and location in the body of the email.

 

Upcoming Events

Black Womens Equal Pay Day (August 3)

Join PowHerNY, Network Partners, and NY leaders next week in honoring Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. August 3rd signifies how far into the year Black women must work to make as much as a white non-Hispanic man did in 2020. In New York, Black women make $0.64 to every dollar earned by a white non-Hispanic man. This will equal a total $986,800 in lost wages over their lifetimes.

Join us on August 3, 2021, at 1:30PM to highlight the wage gap experienced by Black women and hear the solutions New York leaders want to take action on this year.

Watch our Rally Live via Zoom: https://bit.ly/BWEPD21_Rally

Join us online using #EqualPayNY on social media. Check out Sample Posts in our Toolkit: https://bit.ly/BWEPD21

NYSCADV 2021 Legislative Summary Webinar (August 4)

This year’s legislative session ended in early June with several important pieces of legislation passed by both the Assembly and Senate. Several have already been signed into law. The others will have to be signed into law or vetoed by the Governor by the end of the year.

These bills include:

• A new law to repeal the prohibition against “loitering for the purpose of prostitution” – Chapter 23
• A new law to significantly restrict the use of solitary confinement – Chapter 93
• A new law making it easier for individuals to change their name – Chapter 158
• A new law to ensure confidentiality of conversations between DV survivors and advocates (S.1789/A.2520)
• A new law to raise the age of marriage to 18 – (S.3086/A.3891)
• A bill to permit DV survivors to break utility contracts – Awaiting Gov action

Join NYSCADV for a webinar to review these, and other, important pieces of legislation on Wednesday, August 4, from 10:30-11:30 AM.

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_olUEXnYXRy69nBNQmNciNw

Addressing the Mental Health Needs of New Yorkers During COVID-19 (August 5)

The impact of the pandemic’s loss of life, prolonged economic hardship, and societal upheaval has had—and will continue to have—a profound impact on the mental health of New Yorkers. A recent report from NYSHealth examines rates of anxiety and depression in New York State by race and ethnicity, age, income, food security status, and COVID-19 vaccination status from the start of the pandemic through May 2021, using weekly self-reported survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The report contrasts recent improvements in mental health with persistent disparities by race, income, and food scarcity status.

On August 5, please join NYSHealth for a webinar with Lisa Furst, L.M.S.W., M.P.H., Chief Program Officer, Vibrant Emotional Health, and Sophie Wheelock, M.P.H., Policy and Research Associate, NYSHealth. The panelists will discuss the report’s findings, including key disparities and the continued need for mental health services across New York State. They will also provide recommendations on strategies that can be implemented to improve the emotional wellbeing of all New Yorkers.

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cT3H2qfzS6mvJOkVJShkYQ

Career Empowerment for Survivors: What Advocates Need to Know (August 12, 19)

Join the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Nicole Eniclerico of the YWCA of Union County for the training series, Career Empowerment for Survivors: What Advocates Need to Know.

In this four workshop series, we will discuss key factors that affect our clientele, domestic violence survivors, in their path to a successful job search ending in employment. You will get a better understanding of how to work with and support clients through specific barriers that are limiting their capability to find employment, such as the struggle of a job search, lack of interview skills, and unstable living environments. These workshops will also provide helpful resources that can help clients reach their goals.

Workshops in this series include:

• August 12 (10 AM – 11:30 AM): Successful Interview Guidelines, Part 1: Know Your Rights
• August 19 (10 AM – 12 PM): Successful Interview Guidelines, Part 2: Questions to Prepare & Mock Interviews

Office of Victim Services 2021 Conference: 20 Years Later: Mass Casualty Events and the Evolution of Victim Services (August 25–26)

The NYS Office of Victim Services (OVS) is pleased to announce registration details for the OVS 2021 Conference, 20 Years Later: Mass Casualty Events and the Evolution of Victim Services. This year’s conference will offer in-person OR virtual attendance options and will be hosted in New York City at the New York Marriott Downtown on August 25–26, 2021.

This biennial statewide professional development conference is for victim services advocates, providers, and allied professionals with varied levels of experience from all over New York State and will feature presentations from many acclaimed professionals and victim advocacy experts from across the country.

Featured Guests and Presentations:

• Scarlett Lewis – Founder and Chief Movement Officer of Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement, Mother of Sandy Hook Shooting Victim Jesse Lewis
• Professional Program with the 9/11 Memorial & Museum
• Max Schachter – National School Safety Advocate, Founder and Executive Director of Safe Schools for Alex, Father of Parkland Shooting Victim Alex Schachter
• Eric McGriff – Violence Preventionist, Prevention Program Coordinator at the Crime Victims Treatment Center

Click here to learn more and register by August 13.

Upcoming Virtual Trainings from Prevent Child Abuse Vermont (August–September)

Join our friends at Prevent Child Abuse Vermont (PCAVT) for the following virtual trainings:

• August 2: Overcoming Barriers to Protecting Children from Sexual Abuse
• August 5: Everything Everyone Needs to Know to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse
• August 5: TECHNICOOL: Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet
• August 9: Everything Everyone Needs to Know to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse
• August 13: Overcoming Barriers to Protecting Children from Sexual Abuse
• August 16: Everything Everyone Needs to Know to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse
• August 17: TECHNICOOL: Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet
• August 18: What Is Child Sexual Abuse?
• August 19: Understanding and Responding to the Sexual Behaviors of Adolescents
• August 30: Understanding and Responding to the Sexual Behaviors of Children
• September 1: Nurturing Healthy Sexual Development

Resource Sharing Project: Virtual Learning Opportunities for Rural Programs (August–September)

Join our friends at the Resource Sharing Project for the following virtual learning opportunities:

Rural Sustainability, Part 1: Orientation and Training (August 12)

We all know what it feels like to be dunked in to the deep end of the swimming pool before we really know how to swim. Confusing, scary, and uncertain! So how do we avoid dunking new advocates into the deep end when our work is so busy and there is so much work to be done? Join Leah Green and Val Davis for an interactive conversation about orienting, training, and supervising new rural advocates. This conversation will help rural programs set themselves up for sustainable sexual assault services with creative and supported advocates for years to come. Click here to register.

Rural Sustainability, Part 2: Prioritizing Services (September 15)

It is an unfortunate reality that there are more survivors of sexual assault in our rural communities than our advocacy programs have the capacity and resources to serve. Every day we have to make important decisions about what services we offer and which partnerships to prioritize. Join Leah Green and Val Davis for an interactive conversation about intentionally setting priorities for your rural program. When we make proactive and intentional decisions now, we set up our advocacy programs for sustainable success in the future. Click here to register.

Crime Victims Legal Network: Virtual Open House for NYSCASA Members (September 2)

Join us at this 45-minute interactive presentation where you will learn about the Crime Victims Legal Network, the resources and content on NY Crime Victims Legal Help, and how the site can assist victims of crime and those who work with them. You will have the opportunity to ask questions and give feedback on the website.

When: Thursday, September 2, 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM ET

Registration: https://bit.ly/CVLN92 (Note: URL is case-sensitive.)

Logistics: This event will be held via Zoom. Video participation is not required. The event will be recorded. Registrants will receive the Zoom link to join by email.

Accessibility: The webinar will be conducted primarily in spoken English. Live captions in English will be available. Language interpretation can be made available upon request. Requests may be submitted in the registration form or by email (info@nyscasa.org). Please submit language accessibility requests at least 3 business days before the event.

Audience: This virtual open house is intended for NYSCASA members.

Contact: If you have questions or require assistance with registration, please contact us by email at info@nyscasa.org.

Defending Survivors and Ending the Criminalization of Survival (September 8)

Learn about the work of Survived and Punished, a national collective committed to defending criminalized and incarcerated survivors and ending the criminalization of survival. The session will introduce participants to the collective’s analysis and vision, survivor solidarity actions, and the #FreeThemAll commutations campaign.

The webinar will feature guest speaker Mariame Kaba, an organizer, educator and curator who is active in movements for racial, gender, and transformative justice. She is co-founder of Survived and Punished, founder/director of Project NIA, and Researcher-in-Residence at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, where she co-leads an initiative called Interrupting Criminalization: Research in Action. She is also a co-organizer of the Just Practice Collaborative, a training and mentoring group focused on sustaining a community of practitioners that provide community-based accountability and support structures for all parties involved with incidents and patterns of sexual, domestic, relationship, and intimate community violence.

When: Wednesday, September 8, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM ET

Registration: http://bit.ly/DefendingSurvivors

Logistics: This event will be held via Zoom webinar. Registrants will receive the webinar link by email. Participant capacity is limited to 1,000. Video participation is not required. The event will be recorded.

Accessibility: The webinar will be conducted primarily in spoken English. Live captions in English will be available. Language interpretation (e.g. American Sign Language, Spanish, etc.) can be made available upon request. Requests may be submitted in the registration form or by email (info@nyscasa.org). Please submit language accessibility requests at least 3 business days before the event.

Contact: If you have questions or require assistance with registration, please contact us by email at info@nyscasa.org.

Peer Support Call for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) Advocates in NYS Victim Services (September–October)

NYS-based victim services staff/volunteers who identify as Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC), are invited to participate in NYSCASA’s upcoming peer support calls for BIPOC at victim services programs. These informal conversations will be facilitated by NYSCASA staff.

When: Wednesday, September 15, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvf-murj0uH913yVceSF7zmNNIiM2yZo_-

Logistics: This event will be held via Zoom meetings. Video participation is not required. Registrants will receive the meeting link by email.

Accessibility: The meetings will be conducted in spoken English. Please indicate in the registration form or by email (ahill@nyscasa.org) if you require language interpretation and/or closed captioning. Please provide this information at least 3 business days prior to the start of the session.

Contact: Please contact Articia Hill (ahill@nyscasa.org) if you have questions or require assistance with registration.

Solidarity PLACE (Peer Learning, Accountability, and Community Education) for Aspiring Allies in NYS Victim Services

NYS-based victim services staff/volunteers who are white and aspire to be allies, accomplices, and co-conspirators in support of racial justice are invited to participate in NYSCASA Solidarity PLACE meetings for aspiring allies at victim services programs. These informal conversations will be facilitated by NYSCASA staff. Solidarity PLACE prioritizes Peer Learning, Accountability, and Community Education.

Listerv: Sign up for the Solidarity PLACE listserv Google group: https://forms.gle/TLhbzSW1Nnhk3tuQ6

Goals and community agreements: Click here to review NYSCASA Solidarity PLACE collaborators’ goals and community agreements.

When: October 2021; date/time to be announced.

Registration: Stay tuned for a future email with the registration link.

Logistics: This event will be held via Zoom meetings. Video participation is not required. Registrants will receive the meeting link by email.

Accessibility: The meetings will be conducted in spoken English. Please indicate in the registration form or by email (info@nyscasa.org) if you require language interpretation and/or closed captioning. Please provide this information at least 3 business days prior to the start of the session.

Contact: Please contact Chel Miller (cmiller@nyscasa.org) if you have questions or require assistance with registration.

Restore, Uplift, Ignite—Restoring Matriarchy, Uplifting Survivor’s Voices and Igniting Spaces of Healing (September 15)

Kristin Welch with the Waking Women Healing Institute Inc., will share how they are building culturally founded, sheltered places of learning to increase wellness, prevent acts of colonial violence such as: sexual assault, human trafficking, resource extraction, MMIW, and how we heal. In this presentation participants will gain an understanding of Matriarchal and Land-Based services, Eco Systems of Care, and how to utilize the power of the collective to uplift survivor voices and build future Indigenous leaders.

Join the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center for this important webinar on September 15, at 3:00 PM ET (1:00 PM MDT).

Registration: https://www.niwrc.org/events/restore-uplift-ignite-restoring-matriarchy-uplifting-survivors-voices-and-igniting-spaces

 

Sexual Violence in the News

NNEDV Celebrates Unanimous Senate Passage of the VOCA Fix

On July 20, the U.S. Senate passed H.R. 1652, the VOCA Fix to Sustain the Crime Victims Fund Act of 2021 (“VOCA Fix”), with an extraordinary vote of 100 to 0. VOCA Fix bills were introduced in both chambers on March 4, 2021. On March 17, 2021, H.R. 1652 passed the U.S. House of Representatives (384-38) with broad bipartisan support. The bill is headed to President Biden for signature.

VOCA is the largest source of federal funding for domestic and sexual assault services in the country and is not taxpayer funded. VOCA funds come from federal criminal fines and fees that are deposited in the Crime Victims Fund (CVF). Read more from the National Network to End Domestic Violence; read more from The Hill.

Op-Ed: Survivors of Crime Can Speak for Ourselves – Pass Parole Reform

“Survivors who are tired of being used to justify perpetual punishment that devastates mostly Black and Brown communities deserve to have our voices heard,” writes Melissa Tanis, in an op-ed in amNY. Melissa Tanis is a social worker and organizer with the People’s Campaign for Parole Justice, a coalition of a coalition of formerly incarcerated people, survivors of violence, advocates, activists, and lawmakers. The People’s Campaign for Parole Justice is calling on New York lawmakers to return to Albany for a special session to vote on pending parole reform legislation. Read more.

Cosby Shows the System Was Made to Break Survivors, Not Find Justice for Them

“When you’re a survivor of rape there is no map to healing, it’s not a linear process. The criminal legal system only makes it worse,” writes Alison Turkos in The Daily Beast. “‘Does this sweater make me look more credible?’ is a real question I’ve asked my best friend before a meeting with federal prosecutors.” In this article, Turkos reminds readers that many survivors are frequently disappointed by or harmed by the criminal legal system, and the overturning of Bill Cosby’s “guilty” verdict by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania—and public commentary surrounding it—can be triggering and retraumatizing for survivors. Read more.

The Truth Behind the Growing Number of Women Ending up in Prison

With the number of women in prison skyrocketing in the past 40 years, it’s important to examine the circumstances and injustices facing incarcerated women. In this article, women’s rights activist and criminal justice reform advocate Donna Hylton shines a light on a disturbing pattern: most imprisoned women have experienced trauma and abuse. Read more.

Immigrant Domestic Violence Survivors Are Re-victimized by the State

The Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act of New York (DVSJA), which allows judges to reduce the sentences of survivors convicted due to acts of survival and self-defense, has been hailed as a step forward for the rights of survivors of domestic abuse. However, the law doesn’t exempt an immigrant survivor from deportation. Advocates estimate that hundreds of immigrant survivors of domestic violence are deported each year by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), regardless of the circumstances in which they violated the law.

Domestic violence survivor Assia Serrano, an Afro-Panamanian immigrant, was deported to Panama on June 17 for a crime committed in 2003. Serrano spent 15 years incarcerated in an upstate New York prison before her sentence was reduced under the DVSJA. The judge overseeing her case acknowledged the abuse she endured and ordered her release last May. Serrano wished to reunite with her two U.S.-born children. Instead, she was handed directly over to the ICE for deportation. Read more.

 

New and Noteworthy Resources

How We Talk About Working with Male Survivors of Sexual Assault, Harassment, and Abuse

How we talk about sexual violence matters. Whether you’re describing your center’s services to a friend, talking with a classroom of college students about preventing sexual harassment, or writing your agency’s newsletter, the words you use have an impact on how audiences understand those topics. They also have an impact on who sees themselves as eligible for your center’s services. This resource from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center outlines how you can communicate about sexual violence as something that men experience and about what services are available for survivors, including men. Learn more.

Rape Culture Intervention Toolkit

Created by Hope Praxis Collective, the Rape Culture Intervention Toolkit was inspired by Mia Mingus’s quote “death by a thousand little cuts” — a reference to the way that we do a terrible job of responding to the kind of lower-level harm that often leads to an accumulation of unchecked trauma. The objectives of the curriculum are to provide people with an understanding of how rape culture maintains the status quo in the US (and abroad), identify what power we have to check and transform rape culture, and to provide people with skills on how to make amends for harm from an abolitionist perspective. Click here to access the toolkit and a recording of a webinar with Project NIA.

Find Balance in Advocacy Workflow through Tech

While technology increasingly acts as a gateway to greater accessibility — from digital services, virtual programming, and online learning opportunities to global social movements and social media activism — constant notifications and inbox alerts and the rapid pace of news and new opportunities can easily overwhelm us. The more ways we can be connecting, learning, and doing can reinforce a constant pressure to do more. Grounding in our values can help us to set much-needed boundaries with technology, and it can also be an opportunity to mindfully engage with the options available to us in ways that feel empowering rather than depleting. Read more.

Loving Justice: Embodied Conflict Resolution & Transformative Justice

Transformative Justice and abolition are important values for many of us in social justice and anti-racist movements. But wanting Transformative Justice in theory and staying true to those values in moments of crisis and high emotion can be an enormous challenge.

How do we develop the skills to embody TJ in our day-to-day lives? Kai Cheng Thom’s Loving Justice Framework is a somatic and spiritual lens that is intended to help people stay grounded and mindful in situations of interpersonal and systemic conflict. In this webinar recording, Kai Cheng presents the basics of Loving Justice and provides some practical, trauma-informed tools for participants to take home. Click here to access the recording.

Breaking the Silence: Supporting Survivors of Police Sexual Violence

Created by Interrupting Criminalization, Breaking the Silence is a curriculum for sexual assault service providers intended to accompany Interrupting Criminalization’s report, Shrouded in Silence: Police Sexual Violence – What We Know and What We Can Do About It. Facilitators and participants are strongly encouraged to review the report before using any of the exercises in this curriculum. Click here to download the curriculum.

Prioritizing Financial Security in the Movement to End IPV: A Roadmap

This new report from Freefrom examines stories, challenges, and solutions from over 50 service providers working in the movement to end intimate partner violence (IPV) and provides a roadmap for what integrating financial work into the movement to end IPV could look like. Click here to access the report.

Paying Today and Tomorrow: Charting the Financial Costs of Workplace Sexual Harassment

Little research has been done to identify the financial and economic tolls that sexual harassment takes on survivors themselves. To fill this gap in research, TIME’S UP Foundation and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research have released a new report, “Paying Today and Tomorrow: Charting the Financial Costs of Workplace Sexual Harassment.” This report is the first-ever attempt to quantify the lifetime financial cost of sexual harassment to individual women. Click here to access the report.

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