Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

 Fall 2012  

Rate The Sex You Just Had and Share It: How the social mobile web and "internet of things" will transform our work Part 1   On February 23 of this year,  The Seattle Times published a quiet little article entitled “Condom codes let users ‘check in’ with smartphones.” It started like this:      If you knew that everyone in  your neighborhood was having sex, and wearing a condom, would that encourage you to start thinking about safe sex? That's the theory, or part of it, behind Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest's distribution of 55,000 bar-coded condoms to community colleges and universities and its own health centers throughout Western Washington. These aren't just regular condoms. The QR codes [use photo of the QR condom and explain what it is and what it stands for] on the wrappers can be scanned by smartphones, connecting users to a mobile website that plots their approximate location and ask a few non-identifying questions such as age range and questions like: "The Safe Sex Was ... " — with choices ranging from "ah-mazing ... " to "things can only improve from here." Then, your encounter will become a little blue dot on a searchable map at WhereDidYouWearIt.com. The program is still ongoing, and it remains to be seen if it will catch on enough to have a meaningful impact. But one thing is for certain: It is a brilliantly insightful application of emerging technologies to promote social norms toward safer sex. By sourcing a broad range of experiences from a huge pool of people (an example of “crowdsourcing”), and tagging them to specific geographical areas, Planned Parenthood made safer sex feel more real. Real couples. Real stories (through a pre-set menu of answer options). And real places (no addresses). All of this content provides a PG-13 voyeuristic hook for website views, while framing condom use and communication about STIs as the norm. One could easily imagine adapting this program to include examples of how consent was exchanged and how preferences were communicated for sexual violence prevention/healthy sexuality promotion purposes.   Read More... _________________ Media Savvy: Prevent Connect's Ashley Maier will help you get it.      PreventConnect.org recently posted an online video presentation entitled, Using Media and Technology in Sexual and Domestic Violence Prevention Efforts. Prepared by Prevent Connect’s own Ashley Maier, the presentation is part of a larger online training module on the same subject. I highly recommend it for any sexual and domestic violence (SV/DV) prevention professional seeking a basic understanding of how to craft and disseminate prevention messages for public consumption. And more importantly, to do it in a way that gives your message the best chance to be heard.   Ashley begins the presentation with a deceptively simple point: That media can be used for good. Let’s look at that a bit more closely. The term “media” gets recklessly thrown around, slandered, and conflated quite a bit in our work. But it really just describes the methods and channels by which a message is communicated. At its core it’s fairly neutral in our current era of affordable production tools. It can be used by anyone with the means and skill to produce it for whatever effect they desire. The same with technology.   Read More... __________________

VDH & Action Alliance Announcements VDH Shout-outs: VDH recently partnered with Prevent Child Abuse Virginia and Darkness to Light to provide three trainings on child sexual abuse prevention. Over 50 individuals are now certified to provide Stewards of Children, Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Trainings. To learn more about Stewards of Children or to find a facilitator near you, visit www.d2l.org. Contact Bob Franklin at to find out how to keep up to date on all the opportunities and resources VDH has to offer. You can also join the VDH listserve - send an email to:  Action Alliance Shout-outs:   Want to support the prevention of sexual & domestic violence throughout Virginia? Visit DrivePeaceHome.org for more information.   V-DAY Launches One Billion Rising RVA: A global call to challenge and shatter worldwide acceptance of violence against women. Find out more about the campaign in Virginia!   Join the Action Alliance and advoctes statewide at our 2012 Act.Honor.Hope Gala on December 1st in Richmond, VA. Click here to learn more.    Check out our Prevention Pages to find out about Virginia-based work, our Healthy Sexuality Report, the Prevention Guidelines, and more!  PreventConnect featured WIKI       Social Media and Primary Prevention We need a place to seed prevention concepts to inquiring minds, both those in and outside of the movement. Social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and various blogs related to our cause provide that platform in a tangible way. Find out more and contribute your own thoughts - at the PreventConnect Wiki.   A Wiki is just an online destination that pools the wisdom and knowledge of a large group of people - people like you!

Drive Peace Home: Virginia's media-driven campaign to turn cars into vehicles for change

  

In an effort to pool resources and sustain innovative, community-based prevention efforts across the state, Virginia advocates have developed a strategic, media-savvy campaign intended to tug at the heart strings of the social justice minded and general public alike. The “Peace Begins at Home” License Plate initiative isn’t just your typical push to sell a product to the movement, it’s a multifaceted campaign designed to “go viral” and shed light on the benefits of technology and media use (social or otherwise) for social justice and public health causes. We want everyone in on this, Joe-Schmo and antiviolence sympathizers alike. 

 

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Prevention Recipe Review 

From the kitchen of: The Action Alliance

 

 

Based on the Prevention Recipe

Card - a resource developed to help explain prevention to your community and stakeholders in a fun and simple way - these recipe reviews break down which fresh ingredients to use in your prevention programming and how. Follow these simple recipes and you'll be well on your way to changing the future with fresh ideas and effective tools! 

 

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