2018 RPE Leadership Training Keynote

Prior to the2018 National Sexual Assault Conferencein Anaheim, California, theNational Sexual Violence Resource Centerhosted the 2018RPELeadership Training. Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis provided a powerful keynote address to attendees.

Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis’s keynote, “Now What: Lessons from the Civil Rights Movement for the #MeToo Movement,” inspires practitioners to shift out of the “why” and into the “now what” for preventing sexual violence before it occurs. Dr. Thema urges us to be mindful within movements of who is being centered, who is being left out, and who is marginalized.

Dr. Thema also highlights the need for self-care and community self-care within our field. We cannot accomplish this work “running on the fumes of anger and disappointment,” she says, but we must find ways to care for ourselves and find what calls us higher within this work. Our current anger and frustration is justified, but it cannot be the only thing driving us in the work. For example, what drives us can be the steps of change we see every day that contribute to our vision of a world without violence, such as seeing an outpouring of support for victims and survivors, or hearing success stories of bringing men and boys into this work as allies for change, or increased funding for community-led prevention within and for historically marginalized communities.

View or listen to Dr. Thema’s engaging and inspiring keynote address to learn more about applying the lessons learned from the civil rights movement to the movement to end sexual violence, and for encouragement for how we can be our best selves for ourselves and the communities we serve. Here is a list of resources that supports and complements Dr. Thema’s messages:

• On centering marginalized identities within prevention work:
  • PreventConnect Web Conference Culturally-Informed Prevention: Preventing sexual and domestic violence in communities of color
  • PreventConnect Web Conference Centering the Margins: Advancing health equity for sexual and domestic violence prevention
• On connecting multiple forms of violence and oppression:
  • PreventConnect Web Conference How Do We Connect the Dots?: Local approaches to preventing multiple forms of violence
  • 2017 National Sexual Assault Conference RPE Ignite Talk We’re All in This Together: Applying an Anti-Oppression Framework to Prevention
• On community-based and community-level prevention:
  • PreventConnect Web Conference Community-Level Indicators: Advancements in Evaluating Sexual, Domestic, and Other Forms of Violence Prevention
  • 2017 National Sexual Assault Conference RPE Ignite Talk Community Based Prevention from a Cultural Perspective
• On framing the narrative and media messaging:
  • Where we’re going and where we’ve been: Making the case for preventing sexual violence from RALIANCE and the Berkeley Media Studies Group
  • PreventConnect Web Conference What’s in a Frame?: Communication effectively to get attention for sexual violence prevention