Reclaiming Our Movement Through SCESA’s National Institute

Here is a blog post by Ellen Yin-Wycoff, Associate Director at the California Coalation Against Sexual Assault:

Last week, Sandra Henriquez, CALCASA’s Executive Director, and I had the honor of participating at the national Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault (SCESA)’s institute in Henderson, Nevada, along with 70 women of color advocates from across the nation and US territories. This institute titled, “Reclaiming Our Movement,” was focused on providing over 25 intensive workshops and forums on prevention, intervention/advocacy, wellness, and professional development.

We had the opportunity to share resources from our respective communities and agencies (such as Green Dot, PreventConnect, Support for Survivors, caucus work, etc.) along with our personal stories and journeys in this movement to end sexual violence. As women of color, we are often faced with many obstacles and challenges in this movement to serve ALL communities (e.g, communities of color, LGBTQ, Native American, faith, rural,persons with disabilities, etc.) but struggle with limited resources to provide these services in a culturally and linguistically appropriate way. Especially now, with such economic challenges, it even more critical for all of us to evaluate on how we can provide “equal” and quality access to our services for our communities that is inclusive of everyone.