SEXUAL TRAUMA AWARENESS & RESPONSE CENTER

THE CENTER LINE

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FALL 2012 NEWSLETTER

Partnering for Change

The YMCA of the Capital Area, Baton Rouge Children's Advocacy Center and STAR Aim to Train 5% of the Community to Prevent Child Abuse
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused before age 18. In 90% of those cases, the abuser is someone the child knows and trust. The YMCA of the Capital Area, along with STAR and the Baton Rouge Children's Advocacy Center (CAC), are offering Darkness to Lights evidence-based training workshop Stewards of Children to create widespread awareness about how adults can recognize, prevent and react to child sexual abuse. This initiative is a vital step towards building a safer, more connected community. This nationally-recognized Stewards of Children training emphasizes that preventing child sexual abuse is an adult's responsibility. By training 6,000 adults in the Baton Rouge community by 2017, the Y will According to STARs Community Educator, Rebecca Marchiafava, The response from the first training was overwhelmingly positive, with participants expressing that it was informative and engaging. Multiple participants even expressed interest in becoming facilitators themselves and bringing the training to other Upcoming training dates and locations are available at: www.ymcabatonrouge.org/ news/DarknesstoLight educate and empower 5% of the populationthe tipping point for igniting behavior changeto take steps to protect children from sexual abuse in families, organizations, and communities. The Stewards of Children training is open to the public and can be of specific interest to sports organizations, coaches, camp counselors, teachers, parents, churches and any organizations serving youth. The trainings facilitate discussion about the incidence and consequences of abuse, and present information about child protection policies and mandates. Continuing education credits for professionals in various fields can be obtained through this training. organizations they are

Our mission is to provide support, education and advocacy to empower all individuals and families affected by sexual trauma, and engage and mobilize the community to prevent sexual violence. We envision a healthy community free from oppression and violence that fosters equality and acceptance of all its members.

News From The Center Farewell to our Executive Director, Jane Wood
It is with mixed emotions that, effective October 31st, I am retiring as the Executive Director of the Sexual Trauma Awareness & Response Center (formerly the Rape Crisis Center). For the past 21 years, the District Attorneys Office has given me a wonderful opportunity to serve our community in a meaningful way. It has been so rewarding to work with the many dedicated individuals who also serve our community as volunteers, community partners, staff, and Board members. During these years, my association with the District Attorneys Office has afforded me the opportunity to enjoy many wonderful and lasting relationships. Each of you has touched me in a very special and meaningful way. I have learned so much from your strengths, knowledge, and dedication. Our community is blessed to have so many amazing people and organizations who work to assure that victims of rape are treated with dignity and respect. Knowing that Racheal Hebert will be assuming the role as Executive Director of STAR beginning November 1st will make my exit a bit easier. Additionally, leaving the victims of crime in the capable hands of social worker Nicole Gillum, with whom I have had the pleasure of knowing and working for the last ten years, is of great comfort to me. I know that our new staff members, Krystal Sugulleh, Shannon Smith, and Rebecca Marchiafava, will continue their assistance to victims of crime. It has been a privilege for me to work with our relentless ADA sex crimes section chief and friend, Sue Bernie. And Medical Director Randy Brown, who has been such an incredible inspirational support and friend to me for 21 years --- thank you and I will miss you. I am sure that, with their leadership, STAR will continue to grow, prosper and expand services to meet the many needs of victims of sexual assault in our community. And, finally, to District Attorney Hillar Moore, thank you for all your support and for believing in me as Executive Director of STAR. It has been an honor and a privilege to work for you. These past years have been an amazing journey for me and one that I would not change for the world. I do plan to continue as a STAR volunteer and supporter. Thank each and all of you for these wonderful years. Best to each of you and God Bless. Sincerely,

Jane Wood
From our clients...
STAR helped me through my recovery process. No one can truly understand the chaos that ensues after an assault has ripped apart your life. No one asks for this. No one knows how to react. Through counseling at STAR, I realized that I had options: I could either continue to live in fear and shame and let this one event rule my life, or pick up the pieces and recognize that this experience is just one part of my journey. My rape does not define me, my recovery does. Thats why I call myself a survivor. ~ Survivor, aged 32

Your support makes a difference.

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News From The Center STAR Recognizes Our Outstanding Volunteers and Supporters
Board of Directors
Mary Erlingson President Stephanie Jacque Vice-President Mark Dumaine Secretary Tommy Naquin Treasurer Dr. Randall Brown Medical Director Lt. John Attuso Dr. William Beau Clark Kathi Gill

Special thanks to all of the brave men who took the high-heeled challenge this spring for STARs annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes march!

We have the best volunteers! STAR volunteers Amira Richardson (left) and Sarah Backstrom (right) show off their door prizes at STARs summertime fiesta pool party and social.

Ann Guedry Sid Newman

Our Staff
Jane Wood Executive Director Racheal Hebert Program Director Nicole Gillum, LMSW Sexual Trauma Specialist Krystal Sugulleh, MPA Volunteer Coordinator Rebecca Marchiafava Prevention Educator

STAR staff and Board members (right) pose with Assistant District Attorney Sue Bernie (center), winner of the Louisiana Champion of Social Change Award for her work with sexual assault survivors.

The Center Line

KNOW More: Bringing an End to Victim Blaming

We Will Not Surrender Our Freedom to Travel

Gender-based terror and tempting fate
By Rebecca Marchiafava, Community Educator

Youre expressing a firm national commitment thats so important, that we will not surrender our freedom to travel, that we will not surrender our freedoms in America. ~George W. Bush, September 27, 2001 When it comes to political terrorism in America, we are told to assert our freedoms and not let the terrorists win. By contrast, when it comes to gender-based terrorism in America, women are told just the opposite. In the aftermath of Mickey Shunicks murder came the usual comments that she should not have tempted fate by riding her bike alone so late at night. We women tempt fate every day of our lives not through foolish refusal to take simple precautions, but because by the very nature of our existence we tempt fate. We tempt fate by having, on average and due to our biology, physically weaker muscles than men. We tempt fate by having vaginas. We tempt fate by living as single women, engaging in relationships, leaving abusive relationships, becoming pregnant, having children, going out with friends, engaging in healthy and unhealthy behaviors, 4

following and ignoring rules, entering public spaces, and living in private spaces. We tempt fate by running errands in broad daylight, as a recent abduction and rape in Baton Rouge reminded us.

and courage, as we travel from place to place with the stranger in the bushes on our mind. For most of us, the stranger in the bushes never materializes. Years of successfully taking risks to live a full life conditions us to continue taking risks. We come to understand that the world is not full of monsters though we are acutely aware it contains too many of them. We let go of exhausting, crippling fear out of rebellion or rationalization or necessity in favor of a more manageable fear and awareness. Occasionally, the violent stranger finds us and does something awful to us, and they say we should have known better. What did we think was going to happen? ----Victim blaming is more than commenting on what a victim was wearing or saying she was asking for it. It includes focusing public attention and discourse on the actions of the victim rather than on those of the perpetrator. Any variation of what did she expect to happen? is an example of blaming the victim. Now, I have some better questions: why is it more worthwhile to ask why Mickey Shunick thought it acceptable to ride her bike at 2:30 a.m. than to ask why Brandon Scott Continued on next page

But to call it tempting fate is to say that were asking for something bad to happen to us. Really what we are doing is taking calculated risks in order to live our lives always aware, on some level, that taking these risks may result in our death. We live with terrifyingly violent scenarios ingrained in our consciousness. We live with acute awareness of our vulnerability. On top of the precautions we must take against every other threat the world throws at us, we look over our shoulders, clutching mace, keys,

The Center Line

KNOW More: Bringing an End to Victim Blaming

Continued from page 4 Lavergne thought it was acceptable to smash his truck into Mickeys bike, abduct, and murder her at 2:30 a.m.? Where was his escort? Why wasnt he taught from childhood to tell a buddy if having thoughts of abducting, sexually assaulting, and/or murdering women? Why didnt his parents and society ingrain in him how to become less vulnerable to life imprisonment? Why does our culture, by the way we discuss and respond to these types of crimes, necessitate that women carry the primary burden of responsibility for preventing our own murders? Because in the real world, where monsters exist, women exist, too. In this real world, women travel and work and have fun with friends and engage in relationships and run errands and enter public spaces and live in private spaces. It is unrealistic to expect us to always take simple precautions that are often quite inconvenient or even impossible. It is insulting when your only proposed solution is to tell us to be more afraid and less free than we already are in response to a reality manifested by violent men. It perpetuates gender inequality to expect women to rely on protection from good guys to survive attacks from bad guys, as if the difference between the two is that simple and easy to recognize. It perpetuates rape culture to deflect responsibility for male violence onto women. It perpetuates gender violence to assume that the public health impacts of so many mens lack of empathy toward women cannot be better addressed. It perpetuates sexist stereotypes of men to assume that men cannot assertively hold other men accountable for the way they treat women, or that male violence is more a product of biology than a product of our culture. Throughout much of our national history, many of the freedoms we currently possess as American women appeared to be completely out of reach. Yet we possess these freedoms now because visionaries believed they were possible and worked to create a new reality. This is why it is dangerous for anyone to make the pragmatic world as it is argument without envisioning and working for the world as it could be. If on the one hand you say, This is how your world is, and on the other hand you say, This is how your world will always be, then even if you are not a perpetrator, you are identifying The Center Line 5 Want more? Read an expanded version of this article on STARs blog http://brstarcenter.wordpress.com/ yourself as a perpetuator. The last thing we need is for anyone to comment on the behaviors of victims of violence. Weve heard it a million times before, as have the men who rape and/or murder us. Rather than perpetuating this reality, we respectfully request that you recognize and publicly acknowledge that change is both possible and necessary. Then join us in fighting for it. Because were here, we live in fear, and were not going to get used to it. We will not surrender our freedom to travel.

Spotlight on Community Southern University Implements a Stop Violence Against Women Program on Campus
Southern University in Baton Rouge (SUBR) is making great strides in improving student safety on campus. In fall 2012, the University implemented the Violence Against Women program to effectively prevent and intervene in incidences of sexual assault and dating violence that affects hundreds of thousands of college students nationwide. The purpose of the project is to develop strategies to strengthen security on campus, define policy and procedures concerning violence against women, strengthen investigation through specialized training of officers, and educate students concerning violence STAR has provided training and technical support to the University SART and SANE programs, and will continue to work with the campus community to serve students who experience sexual violence. Through the program, which is funded by the Office of Violence Against Women, SUBR developed a campus-wide sexual assault response team (SART), a sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) program, and expanded counseling services to students through the Southern Counseling Center. against women. In addition to implementing response protocols, the University has made a strong commitment to prevention. SUBR has given STAR access to incoming freshman classes and college athletes to conduct educational sessions promoting safety, healthy relationships, and risk reduction training.

Join us for the 26th Annual Take Back the Night

Domestic and sexual violence are major public health problems in America, and the Greater Baton Rouge community is no exception. National statistics indicate that 1 in 4 women will experience intimate partner violence and 1 in 5 women will experience a completed or attempted rape in her lifetime. While these numbers stand alone as reason to take action, what these numbers dont reflect are the countless children and families that are affected by violence against women. We must come together as a community to honor these survivors and take a stand to prevent future violence. The 26th Annual Take Back the Night Candlelight Vigil and March will be held on Sunday, October 14th at the Memorial Clock Tower at Louisiana State University. The vigil will begin at 6:00 p.m., followed by a one-mile march around campus at 7:00 p.m. The ceremony will highlight the struggles and obstacles we have faced together as a community in protecting the women, children, and families in the Greater Baton Rouge area. 6 The Center Line

Volunteer Corner In Their Own Words

My name is Brittany Lockard and I am a first year graduate student in the LSU School of Social Work Masters program. I am a 2011 graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi where I obtained my B.S. in Psychology. I am currently interning at STAR where I am learning many different skills, which are geared towards helping survivors of sexual abuse. I chose STAR as my place of internship because I have always been very interested in the counseling/treatment of sexual abuse and also with helping people and making a difference in their lives. Though I have only been interning with the agency for a few weeks, I am enjoying it very much and I am gaining so much knowledge in this field. I am currently going through the forty-hour training, which teaches volunteers about advocacy and how to utilize different skills in order to help people who call the twenty-four hour crisis line. This training is very informative and I have learned so much since it started. The people of this agency work so hard to make a difference in the lives of survivors and to help make people aware of sexual violence and ways to prevent it. I have and continue to enjoy seeing them on the days when I intern and look forward to learning from them further. I could not have asked for a better place to intern and advance my skills further in this field, and I definitely am looking forward to spending the rest of the year at STAR.

Our center relies heavily on community members like yourself. Become a STAR supporter today by contributing any amount you can.

1. Mail a check to: Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response Center 233 St. Ferdinand Street Baton Rouge, LA 70802 2. Make a secure online donation through PayPal. Scan our QR code to the right to visit our website. STAR is a 501(c)(3) non-profit with assigned tax ID # 45-3088168.
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SEXUAL TRAUMA AWARENESS & RESPONSE 233 ST. FERDINAND STREET BATON ROUGE, LA 70802 PHONE: (225) 389-3456 FAX: (225) 389-5685

PROGRAMS & SERVICES

24hour confidential hotline Hospital advocacy Individual counseling Sexual assault evidence collection Support groups Criminal justice advocacy Training and prevention education programs

24-HOUR HOTLINE: (225) 383-7273 V I SI T US ON THE WEB A T WWW. BRSTAR. ORG