New York State Center for Sexual Violence Prevention (SVP) Training and Technical Assistance

SVP helps agencies in New York State implement community-level primary prevention strategies to reduce the occurrence of sexual violence in priority populations.

Sexual violence is a serious public health problem that affects every community and people across identity and experience. The field of sexual violence prevention has emphasized the importance of “primary prevention,” which means stopping violence before it begins. By taking this approach, regional centers (also known as rape prevention education or RPE programs) address the ways individual, relational, community, and societal factors impact sexual violence. These strategies move beyond outdated victim-blaming attitudes and instead emphasize efforts to change communities, shift social norms, and create cultures of nonviolence, equity, and safety for all.

The initiative

CAI helps the New York State Department of Health, regional centers, and key community partners build capacity and skill to develop, deliver, and evaluate programs that prevent sexual violence. We do this by providing training, technical assistance, resources, and expertise.

Six regional centers across New York State receive funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to implement comprehensive and evidence-based/informed prevention in 17 counties with the highest rates of sexual violence in New York. Each center implements prevention programs in community settings, such as schools, bars, and community-based organizations. By focusing on community-level change, the SVP program facilitates community partnership to shift social norms and cultivate communities that are free from violence. This is done through group education on primary prevention (e.g., bystander intervention training), social marketing campaigns, changing physical and social environments, and education on policy solutions that prevent sexual violence.

The impact

Ending sexual violence in communities requires a population-based approach that builds strategies to change community norms, decreases risk factors, and increases protective factors. Our Sexual Violence Prevention project supports these goals by building a comprehensive understanding of authentic community engagement that empowers community ownership and strengthens connections between all forms of oppression, recognizing how inequities create conditions that allow violence to occur. By championing this paradigm shift in the field of sexual violence prevention, providers gain the knowledge and expertise to create cultures of nonviolence and stop violence before it begins.

Project funder

Health Research, Incorporated and New York State Department of Health

Leadership and contact

Corbin Knight-Dixon, SVP Project Director: svp.contact@caiglobal.org

Resources

If you have a resource that you think we should share, let us know! Email svp@caiglobal.org.

On this page:

Coalition building

Foundational resources

Emergent Strategy: Organizing for Social Justice (by Tiago Forte, Forte Labs)
Tiago Forte’s summary and interpretation of the book Emergent Strategy: Shaping Worlds, Shaping Change by adrienne maree brown, is hoping to reach more people. Tiago paraphrases in his own words and incorporates some of his own experiences and learnings from the world of productivity and effectiveness.

Power Mapping & Analysis (by Anita Tang, The Commons Social Change Library)
A tool to guide your team through a power mapping analysis to inform your campaign strategy with a thorough picture of the players, and their power.

Tools for Campaign Planning (by Organizing for Power, Organizing for Change)
A tool to begin mapping your opponent’s world. Who do they care about? Who are they accountable to? What is the nature of the relationship?

10 Things You Need to Build Clever Coalitions (by Gemma Mortensen, Stanford Social Innovation Review)
How to make collaboration work in a world of complex systems and exponential change.

Coalition Building: Starting the Coalition (by Community Toolbox, University of Kansas)
This resource discusses what a community coalition or partnership is, why and when it can be a good strategy, who should be included, and how to implement it.

Community How To Guide On Coalition Building (by National Highway Traffic Administration)
In this coalition-building guide, readers will learn the steps that bring together a diverse group of people to pursue a common goal.

Sustainability of Coalitions (by Tom Wolff, AHEC/Community Partners)
This resource provides a framework and strategies for sustaining community-based coalitions and collaboratives over time.

Implementing resources

Collaboration Multiplier (by the Prevention Institute)
Collaboration Multiplier is an interactive framework and tool for analyzing collaborative efforts across fields. It is designed to guide an organization to a better understanding of which partners it needs and how to engage them. (Downloadable resources available)

Coalition Building and Maintenance (by PowerPrism)
Coalition organizers must remember that their partners only stay at the table when those needs are getting met. The Power Prism recognizes the four essential layers to a successful campaign coalition.

Effective Recruitment of Coalition Members (by PowerPrism)
This publication explains why you need coalition partners and what they can (and can’t) do for you and then work to leverage what each member brings to the table.

Podcasts

These podcasts feature real people working for their communities and building coalitions.

Coalition Building (by Youth Organizing)
Listen as the hosts pull back the curtain on what coalition-building looks like in practice, discussing the importance of coalitions in organizing work and how to deal with tensions and disagreements in coalitions.

Including You: Coalition Building (by Living Corporate)
Val Torres, PhD, the Board Director of The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Pinellas County, explains how he’s building broad community support to expand opportunity in his region.

YouTube and video webinars

State Action Planning and Coalition Building to Prevent Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence (by ValorUS)
This webinar focuses on methods California and Pennsylvania use to prevent sexual and intimate partner violence by building and maintaining diverse and inclusive coalitions and action plans.

Coalition Building Webinar Series Part 1 (by UnKoch My Campus)
Presenters discuss how to build power through deepening your relationships by having one-on-one time with a coalition member.

Books

Emergent Strategy (by adrienne maree brown)
In Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown explores how to adapt to change and create social justice movements rooted in personal, organizational, and movement-wide transformation.

Facilitating Breakthrough: How to Remove Obstacles, Bridge Differences, and Move Forward Together (by Adam Kahane)
Author Adam Kahane demonstrates how structured and creative process can remove obstacles to fluid forward movement in change making.

Unite and Conquer: How to Build Coalitions That Win (by Krysten Sinema)
Krysten Sinema shows how to forge connections-both personal and political-with seemingly unlikely allies and define our values, interests, and objectives in ways that broaden our range of potential partners and expand our tactical options.

Community engagement

CAI resources

MOU example (300 KB PDF) (by CAI)
An example of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between a school district and an RPE program.

YouTube and webinars

Centering Social Justice in Community Engagement (by NCID)
Moderated by Cecilia Morales, PhD, managing editor of the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, this conversation offers insights and experience in using community engagement as a practice for achieving social justice, within higher education and beyond our institutions’ walls.

Books

Building Powerful Community Organizations: A Personal Guide to Creating Groups that Can Solve Problems and Change the World (by Michael Jacoby Brown)
Intended for individuals who want to start, strengthen, or revitalize a group to address a community issue, this indispensable guide includes a series of practical steps that help build a successful community organization and offers sample cases that more clearly illustrate each step.

Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy (by Chris Crass)
A book for activists engaging with dynamic questions of how create and support effective movements for visionary systemic change.

How to Be an Antiracist (by Ibram X. Kendi)
Instead of working with the policies and systems we have in place, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.

All About Love (by bell hooks)
All About Love reveals what causes a polarized society, how to heal the divisions that cause suffering, and instill caring, compassion, and strength at home, at school, and in the workplace.

Never Eat Alone (by Keith Ferrazzi)
In Never Eat Alone, Ferrazzi lays out the specific steps-and inner mindset-he uses to reach out to connect with the thousands of colleagues, friends, and associates on his contacts list, people he has helped and who have helped him.

Community-level prevention

CAI resources

Community-level Prevention for RPE Leadership Webinar (by CAI)
A webinar and presentation slides regarding community-level and primary prevention of sexual violence for agency leadership.

Principles of Effective Prevention Programs (300 KB PDF) (by CAI)
A PDF document outlining effective sexual violence prevention principles.

Foundational resources

STOP SV: A Technical Package to Prevent Sexual Violence (by Division of Violence Prevention National Center for Injury Prevention and CDC)
A select group of strategies that are based on the best available evidence to help communities and states sharpen their focus on prevention activities with the greatest potential to reduce sexual violence and its consequences. More information can be found on the CDC’s sexual violence prevention page.

Connecting the Dots (by VetoViolence, CDC)
A useful interactive tool for thinking through different types of factors and risk/protective factors on different levels of the social-ecological model. The Principles of Prevention webinar and Connecting the Dots Brief may be particularly useful.

Community Readiness Handbook (by the Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research)
A handbook for successful change that guides assessing and engaging community readiness to address various social issues, including violence.

Leading organizations

VALOR-Advancing Equity. Ending Sexual Violence
ValorUS® is a national organization commuted to advancing equity and ending sexual violence.

National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC)
NSCRC provides research & tools to advocates working on the frontlines to end sexual harassment, assault, and abuse with the understanding that ending sexual violence also means ending racism, sexism, and all forms of oppression.

PreventConnect|A ValorUS PROJECT
The goal of PreventConnect is to advance the primary prevention of sexual assault and relationship violence by building a community of practice among people who are engaged in such efforts.

Prevention Institute
Prevention Institute’s mission is to build prevention and health equity into key policies and actions at the federal, state, local, and organizational level to ensure that the places where all people live, work, play, and learn foster health, safety, and wellbeing.

Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR) Assessing Campus Readiness
Supporting Campuses in creating safe and respectful communities.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion

Foundational work

INCITE!|Community Accountability
Community accountability is a community-based strategy, rather than a police/prison-based strategy, to address violence within our communities.

Healing Histories Project
Works in solidarity with many health and healing practitioners/workers by holding with dignity and respect the lives and communities they care for and by disrupting abuses of the state.

We, As Ourselves|Shaping the Narrative About Black Survivors
Black survivors have been a key part of defining moments to call out sexual violence. Yet, as movements to address sexual violence have emerged, Black survivors’ experiences and stories have gone underexamined- and worse, Black survivors have been silenced or received backlash when they speak out.

Project Implicit (by Harvard)
The mission of Project Implicit is to educate the public about bias and to provide a “virtual laboratory” for collecting data on the internet. Project Implicit scientists produce high-impact research that forms the basis of our scientific knowledge about bias and disparities.

Anti-racist Toolkit Start with Self (by Stanford)
Becoming aware of racial unconscious and implicit bias and acknowledging this bias with compassion and non-judgement is an essential step in becoming a better ally. This guide is intended to help readers build that awareness, practice self-compassion, and challenge individual bias in order to mindfully make racially-just decisions in the workplace and beyond.

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice (by Jennifer Eberhardt)
A social psychological at Stanford University, Eberhardt investigates the consequences of the psychological association between race and crime. Through interdisciplinary collaborations and methods, Eberhardt reveals the extent to which racial imagery and judgements suffuse our culture and society and in particular, shape actions and outcomes within the criminal justice domain.

Implementing resources

Creative Interventions
Creative Interventions believes that change can take place where violence first occurs- in relationships, families, and communities.

TransformHarm.org
A resource hub about ending violence. This site offers an introduction to transformative justice and includes articles, audio-visual resources, curricula, and more.

What Is Health Equity? (by CDC)
This resource includes definitions of health equity, factors that affect health equity, such as social determinants of health and health disparities, and the role of CDC in advancing health equity.

What Is Racial Equity? (by Race Forward)
This resource explains the concept of racial equity and how it differs from racial equality and racial justice. It also provides some examples of racial equity work and strategies.

GLAAD Media Reference Guide (by GLAAD)
This guide is intended to be used by journalists reporting for mainstream media outlets and media creators who want to tell the stories of LGBTQ people fairly and accurately. It is not intended to be an all-inclusive glossary of language used within the LGBTQ community, nor is it a prescriptive guide for LGBTQ people.

Trans Communities Resources (by Forge)
FORGE offers training, technical assistance, and support for transgender and non-binary individuals and the professionals who work with them building strength and resilience in our transgender communities. FORGE provides various resources for transgender and non-binary communities, especially those who are survivors of violence.

Esperanza United
Esperanza United mobilizes Latinas and Latin@ communities to end gender-based violence. Formerly Casa de Esperanza, Esperanza United was founded in 1982 by a small group of perservering Latinas as an emergency shelter in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Disability Justice Resources (by Sins Invalid)
Sins Invalid is a disability justice-based performance project that incubates and celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of color and LGBTQ/gender-variant artists as communities who have been historically marginalized. The project features a wide variety of programs, resources, and provides links to other organizations and resources that support disability justice.

Podcasts

Code Switch (by NPR)
Hosted by journalists of color, Code Switch tackles the subject of race with empathy and humor and explores how race affects every part of society- from politics and pop culture to history, food, and everything in between.

WeAreHER (by We Are HER)
Podcast host Emily Kempe has a series of conversations with survivors of sexual abuse and assault.

Trigger warning: The content includes topics related to violence. Listener discretion is advised.

YouTube and webinars

What is DEI? (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (by S. Jai Simon-Joseph)
This recorded webinar outlines the approach for DEI and how to begin transforming organization internally and externally.

Centering Social Justice in Community Engagement (by NCID)
Moderated by Cecilia Morales, PhD, managing editor of the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, this conversation offers insights and experience in using community engagement as a practice for achieving social justice within higher education and beyond our institutions’ walls.

Books

The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race and Ethnicity, Sex and Gender, Social Class, Sexuality, and Disability (by Karen Rosenblum and Toni-Michelle Travis)
How to categories of people come to be seen as “different”? How does being “different” affect people’s lives? The Meaning of Difference offers a conceptual structure and up-to-date readings on the differences distinctive to American life- differences of race and ethnicity, sex and gender, social class, sexuality, and disability.

Women, Race & Class (by Angela Y. Davis)
A foundational analysis of the intersections of gender, race, and class in the history of the United States. Davis traces the struggles and achievements of women from the abolitionist movement to the civil rights era, exposing the ways that sexism, racism, and capitalism have shaped women’s lives and experiences.

Hood Feminism (by Mikki Kendall)
In this powerful critique, Kendall addresses what she sees as the failures of mainstream feminism and its impact on the lives of marginalized women and calls for more radical and intersection approaches, including confronting connected issues such as hunger, poverty, and gun violence that disproportionately affect women of color and poor women.

Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus (by Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan)
Based on years of research interviewing and observing college life of diverse students, Hirsch and Khan’s landmark study reveals the social ecosystem that makes sexual assault so predictable, explaining how physical spaces, alcohol, peer groups, and cultural norms influence young people’s experiences and interpretations of sex and sexual assault.

Curriculum

Foundational resources

Rape Prevention and Education Approved Curriculum List (by NYSDOH RPE Program)
The current approved RPE curriculum for New York State.

Virtual Adaption Guidance for Sexual Violence Prevention Curriculum and Interventions (by CAI and NSVRC)
In order to meet the needs of the changing landscape of learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many curricula and interventions have provided virtual adaption guidance and resources to their implementers.

NYS-approved school curriculum and interventions

While there are various group-education curriculum, those listed below are approved for implementation by the New York State Department of Health.

Bringing in the Bystander

Dating Matters

Girls Circle

Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP)

Safe Dates

Shifting Boundaries

The Council for Boys and Young Men

NYS-approved nightlife curriculum and interventions

OutSmart

NYS-approved sports curriculum and interventions

Athletes As Leaders

Coaching Boys Into Men

Healthy schools

CAI resources

Creating a Healthy School Environment: A Sexual Violence Prevention Toolkit for Schools (4.5 MB PDF) (by CAI)
This toolkit outlines a strategic process geared towards RPE funded staff to transform schools and eventually school districts in their communities to become healthier and safer. The goal of the toolkit is to prevent all forms of sexual violence, which is all-encompassing term that includes all forms of unwanted sexual contact including sexual harrassment, through a comprehensive approach that focuses on the entire school culture, which we refer to as “creating a healthy school environment.

MOU example (300 KB PDF) (by CAI)
An example of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between a school district and an RPE program.

Title IX resources

Know Your IX- A Project of Advocates for Youth
A survivor-and youth-led project of Advocates for Youth that aims to empower students to end sexual and dating violence in their schools.

New York State Department of Education (NYSED) resources

New York State Education Data at a Glance (by NYSED)
New York State Education Department (NYSED) various educational data and reports on public schools in New York State, such as enrollment, assessment, graduation, accountability, and school report cards.

Social Emotional Learning (by New York State Department of Education)

Other key resources

CDC Healthy Schools (WSCC)
CDC’s framework for addressing health in schools. The WSCC model is student-centered and emphasizes the role of the community in supporting the school, the connections between health and academic achievement and the importance of evidence-based schools policies and practices.

Stop Sexual Assault in Schools
Helps parents and allies find out what their schools are doing about sexual harrassment. The website contains toolkits, video clips, fact sheets, and ways to make positive change in your community.

Toolkits and webinars

Sexual Violence Prevetion: An Athletics Tool Kit for a Healthy and Safe Culture (PDF) (by NCAA)
Preventing sexual violence on campus is critical, and athletics departments must work in partnership with campus colleagues to address this important issue. This toolkit is one of the many available resources that can provide athletics departments with collaborative strategies to support safer campus environments for all.

Sparkit Theatre Toolkit (by Sparkit)
This toolkit includes a series of performance-based activities for teaching artists, educators, and activists to guide young people (ages 14-20) to prevent sexual violence in their lives and communities.

Sparkit Theatre Toolkit (by Sparkit)
This toolkit includes a series of performance-based activities for teaching artists, educators, and activists to guide young people (ages 14-20) to prevent sexual violence in their lives and communities.

Toolkit for Working with School-Aged Children and Youth (by West Virginia Violence)
This training and prevention toolkit offers guidance and resources for educators, parents, and service providers on the issues of sexual violence prevention and response among school-aged children and youth.

Webinar: Bystander Intervention (by University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
This 2021 webinar addresses the issues of anti-Asian violence, bystander intervention, hate crime prevention, and community organizing.

Title IX

How to Gather Information About a School District’s Title IX Policies (by SSAIS)
The guide provides information to help interview school staff and the Title IX coordinator by using the Title IX Checklist.

Books

The Body Is Not an Apology, Second Edition: The Power of Radical Self-Love (by Sonya Renee Taylor)
Activist and poet Sonya Renee Taylor invites readers to reconnect with the radical origins of their minds and bodies and celebrate their collective, enduring strength in order to awaken others and interrupt the systems that perpetuate body shame and oppression.

LGBTQ+ resources

LGBTQ+ Safer Nightlife Training Facilitator Toolkit (by CAI)
This comprehensive toolkit offers practical guidance for training staff to handle unsafe situations effectively, enhancing the overall safety and well-being of the LGBTQ+ nightlife community. Developed with insights from LGBTQ+ patrons, nightlife staff, educators, and curriculum developers, it emphasizes cultural humility and effective learning strategies.

Onboarding

CAI resources

Rape Prevention Education Sample Job Description (40 KB PDF) (by CAI)

Rape Prevention Education Interview Questions and Hiring Rubric (35 KB PDF) (by CAI, adapted by the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault)

Rape Prevention Education Onboarding Timeline Template (25 KB PDF) (by CAI)

Other resources

Equity Hiring Principles and Resources
Tools on how to manage with an equity and inclusion lens by the Management Center.

Program planning

Liberating Structures
This website offers an alternative way to approach and design how people work together. It provides a menu of thirty-three Liberating Structures to replace or complement conventional practices.

Social Transformation Project
This site is full of practical tools and information to drive transformative change. These resources were created for the Art of Transformational Consulting (ATC), a training for organizational development professionals, leaders and facilitators.

The Management Center
Helps leaders working for social change build and run more equitable, sustainable, and results-driven organizations.

Event Planning Guide (by NSVRC)
The event planning guide suggests events and activities educate and engage policymakers and community members around policies related to sexual violence.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month Toolkit (by Jana’s Campaign)
This toolkit provides ideas for events that can both engage and educate a school community.

Delegation at Work: Everyday Mistakes and How to Avoid Them (by Harsh Vardhan)
Real delegation happens when the employee becomes a stakeholder in the outcome of the process. This resource aims to help managers to improve their delegation skills and avoid mistakes that can harm their team’s performance and morale.

Conflict Management Animals (by The University of Idaho)
This activity allows individuals to see their conflict management styles and have a better understanding of how they communicate their concerns within a team.

Conflict Management Animals (by The University of Idaho)
This activity allows individuals to see their conflict management styles and have a better understanding of how they communicate their concerns within a team.

16 Personalities (by NERIS Analytics)
The site offers free and paid personality tests for individuals and teams.

Social marketing

CAI resources

Social Marketing Webinar (Produced by CAI)

Other foundational resources

Social Marketing Webinars
Two-part webinar series on social marketing for advocacy organizations by Lauren Sogor, Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence.

Implementing Social Marketing Toolkit
This University of Kansas Community Toolbox toolkit assists in developing a social marketing effort to promote adoption and use of innovations.

Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR) Assessing Campus Readiness
Supporting campuses in creating safe and respectful communities.

Community Readiness Handbook
A handbook for successful change from the University of Colorado Tri-ethnic Center.

Self-care

Activist Burnout Strategies for Prevention (by Plan to Thrive)
Burnout is a physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by long-term involvement in situations that are emotionally demanding. These strategies aim to help staff recognize and address their own needs, to support each other in a compassionate and sustainable way, and to create a culture of care and resilience in their movements.

Videos

Box breathing (by Sunnybrook Hospital)
How to calm feelings of stress of anxiety.

Grounding Exercise (by Headspace)
A guided meditation for grounding.

The 5-4-3-2-1 Method (by The Partnership in Education)
A grounding exercise to manage anxiety.

GIFs

Breath in-Breath out

De-Stress Monday

Breathe With the Shape

Clear Your Mind of All Distractions

Fill the Red Balloon with Your Stress

Coloring books

VOICES of HOPE Mindfullness Coloring Book

22 Healing Trauma Quotes + Free Mindful Colouring Sheets

Prevention Activity Packet

Fidget toys

18 Easy-to-Make Fidgets

Trainer’s Warehouse
Toys and fidgets to purchase.

Self-care tools

Monthly Calendar
Use this calendar to plan out monthly dates for yourself! Dates with yourself can be as simple as going to the park and reading a book or as grand as that new upscale restaurant.

Self-Care Action Plan
Use this to create a plan of people, places, and this to do and have when you need a moment to disconnect and recenter.

Self-Care Bingo
Use this monthly bingo sheet to gain new self-care experiences and track how many have been completed monthly! This is also a great tool to share with community members to encourage self-care and new adventure.

Vision Board
Use this to create a vision board for any new goal!

Request Technical Assistance

CAI provides specialized technical assistance (TA) related to the Sexual Violence Prevention project and its related tools and resources. To request TA, please complete the form below and a member of the CAI team will contact you.