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Happy Women's History Month!

Please take some time to check out our news and updates for the month of March below, including upcoming trainings and events!

Announcements from the Team

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP

We are very proud to tell you that our Executive Director, Rosa Beltré, will be holding a webinar in Spanish during Sexual Assault Awareness Month on April 9th. This is part of the third annual ‘Yo Soy SAAM’ Spanish language webinar series, a project of Arte Sana , which is a group that Rosa has been working with for many years! More information coming soon.



Rosa has also written this blog for International Women's Day, which took place on March 8th. Check out Rosa's words, written in both Spanish and English, which reminds us to celebrate women as " strong, resilient, powerful, valuable, and full of dreams".

In addition to being Women's History Month, March is also National Professional Social Work Month . So we'd like to take this time to highlight two awesome social workers, who we are so lucky to have as part of our Board of Directors!

Emily Resnik, Board President

Emily began first working with survivors of sexual trauma as a volunteer victim advocate during her undergraduate studies, continuing such work through internships and graduate school, obtaining both an MA in Women’s Studies at the George Washington University and Master of Social Work at the University of Cincinnati, and as a Sexual Assault Response Coordinator at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In her current role as a clinical social worker, she provides psychotherapy to veterans with a broad range of mental health needs, including healing from trauma. Emily was motivated to serve on the OAESV Board of Directors, recognizing the inherent connection between direct service and working collectively to influence public policy and contribute to cultural changes that will lead to an end to sexual violence. Emily lives in Cincinnati with her partner Andrew and their two cats, enjoying cooking, concerts, kayaking, and teaching meditation.

Ryn Farmer, Board Vice-President

Kathryn "Ryn" Farmer received a Bachelor's degree in Social Work from Taylor University and a Master of Social Work degree from Baylor University. She is the Rape Crisis and Anti-Human Trafficking Director at Day One of Crime Victim Services, the Chair of the Northwest Ohio Rescue and Restore Coalition, a member of the Ohio Amber Alert Advisory Committee, and the Vice President for the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence's Board of Directors. Ryn's first interactions with OAESV were in the capacity as a Rape Crisis Director in Northwest Ohio. "One of the aspects I value most about OAESV is that they provide critical leadership in how sexual violence intersects with race, gender, class, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, ability, age and so much more." She is committed to working alongside OAESV to help provide a comprehensive response to survivors who are impacted by sexual violence.

COORDINATED COMMUNITY RESPONSES

We are very proud to share that Olivia Montgomery, Training & Technical Assistance Coordinator for Equity & Inclusion at OAESV, has been given a fully funded scholarship to present at and attend the annual conference of the Texas Association to Stop Sexual Assault ! This year's theme is Lift Every Voice, a theme "intended to recognize and explore the intersections of the anti-sexual assault movement and the black community, in addition to other communities most harmed or underserved by our systems." Olivia's presentation, called ‘The Birth of a Nation: Black Women and Sexual Violence’, will cover the past and present state of social, legal, and other systematic structures that work to oppress women of color. It will also hold space for folks to re-imagine a future without violence. 

Olivia's workshop has also been accepted for the Annual Conference held by Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence . The theme of this conference is "In Community." Go, Olivia!

February was a month of love, and also a month of loss. As we highlighted in our statements last month, there are many layers and complexities in this field, as we navigate relationships to loved ones both near and far.

We would like to again draw your attention to the two blogs we posted, discussing the death of Kobe Bryant-- one written by Rosa, and one written collectively by our Coordinated Community Responses team -- both exploring the various aspects of walking through this loss.

Please take some time to review these and to reflect on the various ways that Kobe's death may have affected you, your co-workers, and the survivors you serve.

LEGAL SERVICES & PUBLIC POLICY

There are many pieces of legislation in Ohio that need your support! We're asking you to take action by contacting your state legislators to ask them to push forward Advocate Privilege, Ending the Statute of Limitations, and Erin's Law.

Check out our Public Policy page for more information!

PREVENTION

Ann Brandon, Director of Prevention, recently published the article "Evidence-Based Bystander Programs to Prevent Sexual and Dating Violence in High Schools" alongside co-author Reiko Ozaki of Northern Kentucky University. The article can be found in Leadership and Research in Education: The Journal of the Ohio Council of Professors of Educational Administration, a peer reviewed journal. Check it out here on pages 73-98.

Are you working on the front lines of change in your community? OAESV is proud to partner with the Bloomberg American Health Initiative to create a network of change-makers working to tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing the U.S. If you’re interested in learning more about the Initiative, make sure to tune into their webinar series this month. More information about the Initiative, the five focus areas, and registration for the webinars can be found here .

RESOURCES & COMMUNICATIONS

For Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2020, our Resource & Communications Team put together a content packet for members ! This packet is meant to help you engage with your communities through the month of April and beyond.

We love the amazing content provided by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (seriously, check it out if you haven’t!). But we thought you might also want some Ohio-specific material to share online. Consider scheduling posts using the content we’ve created; this can help your followers understand what’s going on in Ohio and how we can join together as a state against sexual violence.

Log into the member portal here to access the downloadable content, including a model resolution that you can use to ask your local government to declare April as SAAM in your area of Ohio! Oh, and if you're a member, your packet is also coming in the mail this week along with some other treats!

ADVOCACY

Additional Announcements

OAESV at TWO DAYS IN MAY

Will we see you at Two Days in May this year? We're so excited to share that we have many staff members facilitating workshops at this year's event, including:

We hope you'll attend to hear what they have to share, and make sure to stop by our resource table to say hi!

VOLUNTEERS & INTERNS

We are currently looking for volunteers and long-term interns to help with some upcoming important projects.

These include:

Click here to register!

JOB OPENINGS AROUND THE STATE

Quick Notes on Trainings

Please note that many OAESV trainings and webinars are offered only to members of OAESV. In order to register, you will need to be logged in to the member portal on our website. If you aren't logged in, you will not see the red registration button but instead will see a note asking you to log in.

Members received the 2020 member portal password via email on January 1st, 2020. If you are a member or are part of a member organization but did not receive this email, please reach out to Taylr at [email protected], or speak with the member of your staff who is the main contact for OAESV membership.

If you are not yet a member or part of a member organization, no worries! We do offer some opportunities to all, including non-members. Also, you can register for membership here, after which you will have access to all of our future trainings and past recorded webinars.

Additionally, if you would like any accessibility accommodations for our trainings or webinars, just include that information in your registration. We hope to receive the requests at least two weeks prior to the event in order to fulfill them properly.

Interested in the rest of our trainings in 2020?

Check out our 2020 Training & Events Calendar here .

Help support our work. At OAESV we provide many services, including  training for advocates and preventionists ,  technical assistance for local programs , systems advocacy,  public policy work,  and  much more .

Thanks for reading! Feel free to forward to a friend.

We hope you have an amazing month!

This project was supported by Grant No. OAESV 2019-SW-AX-0020 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice , to the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Justice.