WCSAP | Prevention

We are trying to prevent a social problem: sexual violence is epidemic. Since we are tackling such a large issue, our efforts can draw disagreements or resistance. It is easy to fall into the argument trap, and try to fight fire with fire. After all, if they only understood, how could they possibly disagree?

Statistics are a natural thing to reach for when justifying arguments or preparing presentations. For you and me, statistics might tell a rich story or paint a picture of the magnitude of sexual violence. For others, they might not. Numbers are hard to digest and interpret, and worse: they don't tell a story. In some situations, people are even left to themselves to draw conclusions.

The tip: know your narrative. Have a story of your work and the importance of your work. If you use statistics, they should be able to sit within your story and support it, rather than being the story itself.

Prevention Tip #8

Try writing a script

This tip is about bystander intervention strategies. It is often easier to understand concepts by using clear examples, so many bystander programs contain scripts, or potential events that can occur during an intervention.

Bystander intervention programs exist to define moments of action and to remove doubt around who is responsible for taking action. We are all responsible, to our ability, for our community and the safety of those around us.

Sometimes people have difficulty determining whether they have a responsibility to act in a situation. Using scripts makes it clear how they can respond to a given situation.

Here's an example. Virginia Tech uses a "playbook" with plays such as a full court press (recruiting the assistance of friends) and a pick and roll (using a distraction).

Prevention Tip #7

3 Psychological Principles for Exciting Presentations

Our subject takes a lot of work to prepare, deliver, and understand. You might find yourself using a PowerPoint deck to get the message across. The following 3 principles (from 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations) are aimed at helping you design and craft your message for easy understanding.

Make it just right. Effective communication provides just the right amount of information. Too little information can confuse, and too much information can overwhelm. We remember a message more easily if we have everything that we need and not too much of it.

People can only remember a finite number of things in a single session. Consider mixing large amounts of text with concepts, images, or even music relevant to the point. Provide a map or structure the discussion as a narrative which can serve as a memory shorthand for the smaller points.

Big differences are easy to spot! Find ways to grab the attention of participants by cleanly separating content. Rather than 5 bullets or a paragraph of text, try providing only what can be digested in one minute, or provide clean pointers to different concepts.

Prevention Tip #6

Adult Learning Styles

Sitting through a presentation or training can be difficult, but every now and then there is one that just works.

You are excited, engaged, and alert! You care! You want to be there! What separates the wheat from the chaff? What made that training matter to you? If it mattered to others in the room as well, it is very likely the trainer's methods were informed by understanding adult learning styles. Adults have specific needs around learning. We want to know what is in it for us, and how we are spending our valuable time. We want the material to have some relevance for our life, and we want control over how we learn it.

Beyond self interest and self direction lies how we actually process the information. Some people are visual learners: you know who you are, and you are probably quite happy reading this tip, but wish it had a chart with it, and maybe a graph or 3. Auditory learners: if your lips move silently while reading, it's okay. Auditory learners process information best when it is spoken or heard. Kinesthetic learners: pen disassembly is a favorite pastime in trainings for kinesthetic learners. These folks thrive on activities and manipulating information physically.

Trainings are not the only time we are learning. Behavior change and leadership development are part of any prevention activity, even a meeting of stakeholders or community partners. Adult learning styles are a way to stay dynamic, keep people awake, and communicate the ideas of prevention.

Prevention Tip #5

Using Bystanders

Bystanders are witnesses to an event, but may not be directly involved. Bystander intervention programs attempt to mobilize bystanders to prevent acts of sexual violence. A side effect of bystander intervention is that it widens the conversation of sexual violence prevention to the entire community. Bystander intervention is one way to shift responsibility of sexual violence from those directly involved to the community at large.

Several decades of research has detailed situational factors that may affect a person's willingness to act. These include: the presence and number of other witnesses, the uncertainty of the situation, the perceived level of urgency or danger for the victim, and the setting of the event.

Bystanders intervention can compliment other strategies, and is particularly suited to mixed-gender involvement. Bystander intervention views everyone as a potential helper, and gives people passively interested in preventing sexual violence clear instruction on how to do so.

Engaging Bystanders in Sexual Violence Prevention

Prevention Tip #4

High Community Readiness Optimizes The Success of Your Community Development Initiative

Communities have varying levels of readiness in regards to different issues. Choosing a community with a high degree of readiness to engage in sexual violence prevention will optimize your chances for success. If you choose a community with low readiness, it is likely to be frustrating in addition not creating change. Communities with low and medium levels of readiness are better suited for information/awareness and skill building activities.

There are different models for assessing readiness. This Community Readiness Model, as developed by Dr. Linda Stanley and Dr. Ruth Edwards, is an innovative method for assessing the level of readiness of a community to develop and implement prevention programming. It can be used as both a research tool to assess distribution of levels of readiness across a group of communities or as a tool to guide prevention efforts at the individual community level.

Prevention Tip #3

Promising Practices for School Based Educational Program

The Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault worked collaboratively with Dr Paul Schewe, the Director of UIC's Interdisciplinary Center for Research on Violence to indentify promising practices for rape crisis center initiated school based educational programs. The research focused on identifying characteristics associated with successful (showing change in knowledge, behavior and attitudes) as well as those not associated with success.

Prevention Tip #2

Single session educational programs are not prevention

One time only presentations done well will produce short-term gains in knowledge, but do little or nothing to change behavior. Research consistently shows that the best result single education sessions can produce is change in an individual's knowledge base. Changing behavior requires a sufficient dosage. This is true for all types of prevention, not just preventing sexual violence. Sufficient dosage means that in order to change a behavior, education must be provided in a way in which the message is relevant, that people are exposed to message repeatedly and that they have opportunity to practice or incorporate the message.

Sufficient dosage, as defined in research studies, is "the need for participants to be exposed to enough of the [prevention initiative] for it to have an effect. Dosage, or program intensity, may be measured in quantity and quality of contact hours. Aspects of dosage include the session length, number of sessions, spacing of sessions, and the duration of the total program. Length of message exposure, frequency and number of exposures, and the duration of this frequency are key considerations in determining the amount of dosage exhibited by a given prevention initiative."[1] A single session can be part of your intervention strategy to make sure agencies and individuals are aware of your agency, philosophy and services. Single sessions have value and offer an excellent starting point for system coordination efforts.

Prevention Tip #1

Nine principles for making your prevention programs more effective

It is often confusing to figure out all the things we need to consider to develop an effective prevention program. Your prevention program includes all of your agencies prevention activities. These are nine principles of effective program based on the work of Maury Nation.

1. Comprehensive: Strategies should include multiple components and affect multiple settings

2. Varied Teaching Methods: Strategies should include multiple teaching methods, including some type of active, skills-based component.

3. Sufficient Dosage: Participants need to be exposed to enough of the activity for it to have an effect.

4. Theory Driven: Create prevention strategies based on promising practice, best practice and/or logical rationale.

5. Positive Relationships: Create programs that foster strong, stable, positive relationships between children and adults.

6. Appropriately Timed: Introduce program activities at the "right" developmental stage. The goal is to maximize the opportunity of significantly influencing a participant's life.

7. Socio-Culturally Relevant: Design programs to be appropriate for specific cultural beliefs and practices of specific groups as well as local community norms.

8. Outcome Evaluation: A systematic outcome evaluation is necessary to determine whether a program or strategy worked.

9. Well-Trained Staff: Staff members who are sensitive, competent, and have received sufficient training, support, and supervision should implement programs.

Prevention Tip #9

Tell the Story