Resource Library

Collaborative efforts are essential to end teen dating violence. While many collaborative teams and service providers were initially created with adult survivors in mind, it’s important to understand the unique needs and barriers young survivors face. This session will help collaborative teams assess readiness for working with and serving youth, and includes tools, reflection questions, and suggested protocols for collaborative, community-based efforts to address teen dating violence in rural communities. Special attention is given to meaningful integration of young people into collaborative work.

This presentation will discuss building a successful partnership between community advocates and law enforcement agencies in order to address intimate partner violence. The presenters will discuss the roles of law enforcement and community-based advocates in the response to intimate partner violence (IPV) crimes, specifically in rural areas. The presentation will also discuss the building blocks of creating a positive relationship between law enforcement, advocates and police culture regarding advocacy. The presentation will also highlight common challenges and solutions involving information sharing that may occur between advocates and law enforcement and give helpful suggestions for building and maintaining the vital relationships between first responders and advocates regarding intimate partner violence.

This post discusses the link between animal abuse and domestic abuse, and provides suggestions for professional intervention (Uploaded 2018).

The Stalking Prevention, Awareness, & Resource Center (SPARC) provides these resources for victim service providers, recognizing that they play a vital role in the intervention and response to stalking (2019).

This document highlights programs with victim contact processes, addresses safety challenges. inherent in this work, and offers considerations and best practices for safe and effective implementation (2020).

The Safe Shelter Collaborative allows advocates to communicate with each other to determine where there are available beds. If no space is available, a request for funding for a night at a hotel can be sent out through the associated app, SafeNight (2019).

This article states that 50-75% of female DV survivors with pets reported the animals were threatened, harmed, or killed by the abuser. By understanding the connection between animal abuse and domestic violence, professionals can help survivors more effectively (2017).

With the advent of a COVID-19 pandemic, the gap between technology and humanity has narrowed further as we now find technology to be one of our few lifelines to the world outside of our own homes. We are quickly learning that, while technology can provide immediate access to lifesaving information and opportunities of all kinds, it can also confuse, confound, and concern. Today’s episode focuses on safely integrating technology into our lives as we simultaneously navigate the trauma of living through a pandemic. Our guests are Myra and Russell Strand, co-founders of Strand Squared, a training and consulting agency with the mission to “dramatically shift the cultural paradigm in order to improve society’s response to individuals who have experienced trauma, victimization, and other complex experiences." Myra Strand has been working with survivors of complex trauma with a special emphasis on professional health as it relates to organizational trauma for 30 years. She was previously a faculty member at Northern Arizona University and Coconino Community College where she taught issues of violence, sexuality, and applied intersectionality for over a decade. Russell Strand is a retired Senior Special Agent (SSA) in the United States Army Criminal Investigations Command as well as retired Chief of the U.S. Army Military Police Behavioral Sciences Education & Training Division and the founder and owner of Russell Strand Consulting, LLC. He was selected by the Secretary of Defense to serve on the Congressionally-mandated Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Committee as a member of the Comparative Systems Subcommittee (2020).

Kelsey McKay is a nationally recognized expert on strangulation who developed a critical protocol for strangulation and domestic violence response and treatment. A former prosecutor from Travis County Texas, McKay founded McKay Training & Consulting to collaborate with leaders in fields of law enforcement in order to strengthen how communities collaborate, investigate, treat and prosecute strangulation and intimate partner cases. Her protocol - The Asphyxiation Assessment - is transforming the role of first responders in cases of crimes against women. This episode tackles the subject of strangulation – what it is, what it is not, and best practices in the fields of response, investigation, and prosecution. Content warnings for this episode include: abuse, physical and sexual violence (2020).

Rebecca Bender is the founder and CEO of the Rebecca Bender Initiative. She is an award-winning, nationally recognized expert on human trafficking who escaped nearly six years of modern-day slavery evolving into an author, speaker, trainer and leader in human trafficking. Christine Cesa is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary with a Masters in Intercultural Studies with Children at Risk who serves as survivor advocate with CAST LA and Dignity Health responding to victims of violence and providing emergency services to survivors of human trafficking in the healthcare system. A survivor of commercial sexual exploitation of children, specifically familial trafficking, Christine is a survivor leader whose work includes training, curriculum development and partnering with anti-trafficking organizations in Los Angeles. Content warnings for this episode include sexual abuse (2020).

Today we explore the CCR concept including the model in Harris County, Texas and, more specifically, the value of the sexual assault nurse examiner role with the CCR. Our guests are Carvana Cloud and Dr. Khara Breeden, experts in the fields of coordinated community response (CCR) and forensic nursing programs. Carvana Cloud is a former prosecutor and the executive director of Community Empowerment Solutions, a legal services collaborative designed to support and empower victims and communities affected by crime. Dr. Khara Breeden is a registered nurse who serves as the executive director of the Harris County Forensic Nurse Examiners and is actively engaged in a large number boards related to strangulation and crimes against women. Content warnings for this episode include: physical and sexual violence, emotional abuse, child abuse (2020).

The first episode of the Podcast on Crimes Against Women features originally scheduled 2020 Conference Keynote Speaker Amy Herman, author, attorney, and art historian, whose ground-breaking work in the study of visual perception through art became a method of investigation for law enforcement and launched a movement she describes as The Art of Perception. The recent publication of her book “Visual Intelligence: Sharpen Your Perception, Change Your Life” enables people to see what matters in order to better investigate crimes and criminal behavior resulting in better outcomes from investigation. In this episode, Herman reveals how examining works of art can sharpen observation, analysis, and communication skills by revealing our implicit biases. Content warnings for this episode include: violence, abuse (2020).

This Futures Without Violence webinar focuses on trafficking in rural areas, and how collaboration can facilitate more effective investigations and prosecution. (2016).

This article examines the research that shows the link between cruelty to animals and violence toward humans (Uploaded 2018).

This report explains how community policing may enhance services to victims by defining community policing (2011).