OUR PHILOSOPHY
As we created the content for this website, we knew it would be important
to be clear about where we are coming from. We have had our share of exciting, messy, life-changing, direct, uncomfortable, and new conversations in our work as violence prevention professionals! We recognize that some concepts we discuss in this work may challenge some of your perceptions.
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These conversations are so necessary.
The Safe Youth Collaborative was born out of a necessity for a collection of resources and perspectives that adults who care about youth can trust to help them navigate creating a world where we prevent violence. We designed the information here to help support those efforts in a world where keeping kids safe often feels more and more daunting.
Violence prevention takes all of us —
our entire communities.
Together, we are the Safe Youth Collaborative. We want to support people who want to raise safe, strong, connected kids. Whether you are a parent, family member, childcare provider, teacher, school staff member, school administrator, coach, or anyone else who is part of a youth’s life – this site is for you.
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The following beliefs guide our work — both the work we do in the world and the creation of this collection of perspectives, resources, and knowledge. As always, we welcome your conversation, thoughts, perspectives, and engagement.
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We Believe:
1.
Sexual violence prevention is possible.
Sexual violence is not an inevitable part of life. Once we recognize that prevention is possible, we open a world of possibilities for changing our sexual culture and response to violence.
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2.
It takes all of us.
We believe that it is our collective responsibility to end sexual violence.
Sexual violence is a complicated problem that requires collective action.
One profession or school or family cannot do this work alone. We encourage
all people to understand, support, and participate in sexual violence
prevention in their communities.
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3.
Victims of sexual violence are never at fault
for what happened to them.
We do not support any strategies or curriculum whose primary purpose
is to teach victims how to protect themselves from abuse.
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4.
Healthy sexuality is critical to
sexual violence prevention work.
Healthy sexuality is key to sexual violence prevention. Our sexual culture is complicated. There are good parts and bad parts. Preventing sexual violence
is about changing our cultural norms related to sex and sexuality for the better. Turning to healthy, affirming ways of engaging with sexual health and
our bodies is critical to this work.
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5.
We must use what works.
The public health model has so much to teach us regarding violence prevention of all kinds. The socio-ecological model, principles of effective prevention, and working with risk and protective factors are critical components of what guides sexual violence prevention work. If you are curious about the technical aspects of this work, here are a couple of helpful resources!
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Additional resources
(U.S. Centers of Disease Control & Prevention) This tool makes it easy to connect the dots between multiple types of violence and the risk and protective factors they share at different levels: individual, relationship, community, and society.
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Sexual Violence Prevention Resource for Action
(U.S. Centers of Disease Control & Prevention) This document talks about strategies based on the best available evidence to help communities and states prevent sexual violence.