The Alliance’s prevention and community mobilization programs encompass the work we do to develop sustainable community-based interventions to prevent and respond to sexual violence. This includes building the capacity of individuals, organizations and institutions to analyze the impact of sexual violence and providing them with the skills to develop interventions that best fit the needs of their community.
The Alliance launched Project Dream-Own-Tell (DOT) to educate, empower and raise awareness among 13-18 year-olds from underserved communities in NYC to put an end to sexual violence.
The campaign will largely be a digital effort and it will include messaging — developed from the Alliance’s workshops and focus groups with youth from these three communities — that authentically speaks to youth’s experience on this important issue.
This campaign is important for several reasons including: Adolescents are more likely to experience sexually violent crimes than any other age group, the risks are even higher for young people from communities of color, as well as those who are LGBTQ, who have special needs or are from otherwise marginalized backgrounds, ant there’s a dearth of campaigns targeting these communities.
This campaign seeks to take on this trend and change the outcome for NYC teens. Our goal with this campaign is to empower teens to become heroes and role models themselves in their everyday lives—whether that means supporting a friend who is a survivor of sexual violence, normalizing consent, or modeling what a healthy relationship looks like to younger siblings or others in their communities. The campaign messaging will be positive and community strength-focused to honor the resilience of these historically marginalized communities and to avoid stereotyping. We believe teens are looking for ways to change the world and make things better. We hope to build on this sentiment and give them the resources and knowledge they need to start within their own local community and take on the issue of sexual violence.
The Youth Action Council (YAC) is a leadership model developed by the Alliance to cultivate youth as leaders in preventing sexual and dating violence among their peers. Our youth leadership model has three main elements designed to encourage participation and skill development, involving young people in decision-making and leadership.
In addition to building leadership skills, their involvement also encourages civic responsibility and community service, helping young people to feel valued by addressing issues important to them. Young people highlighted that they want to be a part of the YAC because they can make a difference in the lives of their peers; they want to help end sexual violence among youth, they want to voice teens’ concerns, and they want to raise awareness about these issues.
“I wanted to be a part of YAC because it will help be a way to not only voice certain issues amongst teens, but also a way to help find solutions. I think this is also a great opportunity for me to further build my leadership skills while gaining new ones.” – Anastasia Ramirez, YAC member
“I wanted to be a part of YAC because I find sexual assault a serious problem all over the world and I’d like to help the cause.” – Mahfug Hossain, YAC member
A shocking 1 in 5 women has experience rape in their lifetime and 79.6% were raped before the age of 25, while 27.8% of male victims experienced their first rape when they were 10 years of age or younger. The statistics indicate that youth are far and above the highest risk group for sexual assault. To address this issue, the Alliance has partnered with organizations that support six marginalized communities to launch a city-wide media campaign led by youth, ages 13 to 18.
Our partner organizations include Black Women’s Blueprint, The Arab American Family Support Center, New York Asian Women Center, The Point, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA) and the Anti-Violence Project (AVP).
Despite incidents of sexual violence, there are several factors that contribute to underreporting in communities of color, including: stigma, taboos around discussing the issue and the fear of bringing the attention of law enforcement to the community.
The #NoTeenSV Campaign aims to raise awareness, offer assistance and educate young community members and the adults in their lives about social norms that contribute to teen sexual violence through community-specific and culturally sensitive public media messaging.
#NoTeenSV aligns with the Alliance’s policy strategy to overcome the disparities in access to sexual assault information and services in NYC.
The Alliance and the Crime Victims Treatment Center of Mt. Sinai St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals (CVTC) have developed of a coalition to engage nightlife staff directly in efforts to prevent sexual violence in nightlife spaces. The Alliance and CVTC in partnership with Project Envision Coalition (Mt. Sinai Beth Israel Victim Services Program and Bellevue Rape Crisis Centers) has now successfully created a nightlife collective, called the OutSmartNYC Collective.
Invested in building safe, positive and engaging nightlife experiences for everyone by changing the way we address sexual violence within our communities, the collective now boasts a strong membership comprising of bartenders, waitstaff, club promoters, owners, managers, patrons, and rape crisis advocates and service providers. Members of the collective possess training skills, sexual assault prevention experience and direct experience with various staff functions in nightlife establishments. OutSmartNYC has two subcommittees – a training committee and an outreach committee, both volunteer-based, working to engage more bars across NYC than ever before.
