Meet PreventConnect’s Newest Team Member: Janae Sargent

Hello PreventConnect Community!

My name is Janae Sargent (she/they) and I am excited to introduce myself as the newest Project Coordinator at PreventConnect.

Joining the ValorUS and PreventConnect team is something I have aspired to since I began work in this field in 2018. Coming from a background in journalism and then sexual and intimate partner violence prevention, I am honored to be a part of the powerful storytelling and community-building that PreventConnect and all of its partners and audience have created.

Prior to joining VALOR, I was the Prevention Manager at Lumina Alliance, formerly known as RISE, in San Luis Obispo County, California. Coming directly from a rape crisis center and doing community mobilization through COVID-19 and the fight against racial injustice has highlighted the core value many of us find centric to this work: Eradicating oppression and centering equity come first in the fight to end sexual violence.

To me, prevention is that centering of intersectionality. Through addressing intimate partner violence and sexual violence  Risk and Protective Factors and uplifting grassroots community leaders’ work, prevention quickly evolves into something much bigger. I find that creating a world free of violence means creating a world where all people are free and able to live with dignity, respect and care. For a kid who grew up in rural Northern California, at the intersection of classism, heterosexism and sexual violence – and whose whiteness shielded me from what so many BIPOC and immigrant survivors have to face- prevention shattered the echo-chamber I grew up thinking sexual violence existed in.

I am so excited for the opportunity to work alongside all of you in this rad community of anti-violence activists, preventionists, public health experts and practitioners. I look forward to connecting with you all through our upcoming Podcasts, E-Learning, Blog and Web Conferences (where my dog will undoubtably zoom bomb me.)

Cheers!