Prevention Programs Don't Always Work
Re: Prevention programs not enough.
I want to thank Claire Belliveau for sharing her thoughts about sexual violence on university campuses. This is an important topic that deserves and requires ongoing attention.
Belliveau states that over 70 percent of post-secondary students experience or witness unwanted sexualized behaviour and one in 10 women experience a sexual assault in a post-secondary setting. Belliveau says, “these are abhorrent statistics that everyone should feel angry about”.
She goes on to point out that the province’s commitment of $470 000.oo per year for sexual violence prevention, spread out among post-secondary institutions, will amount to $20 000.oo or less per school or campus. Belliveau has some excellent suggestions about how to provide improved services for students who have experienced sexual violence and I fully support her idea of placing independent, on-campus clinics to make Sexual Assault Centre Services available to students.
I agree with Belliveau that the three Sexual Assault Centres that are available in this province are not funded or resourced sufficiently to address the issues at hand. Belliveau is a fourth-year student at Dalhousie University, and so she is able to provide us with insight into how sexual violence is manifesting in this environment. Sexual violence is part of our lives at every stage, and I would like to build on Belliveau’s insights about sexual violence and share a perspective that is often overlooked when sexual violence prevention is being considered.
70% of all sexual assaults reported to the police occur against children under the age of 18. A 2019 survey conducted by the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services found that 34% of children experience sexual violence and 50% of these children will experience sexual violence again as adults. Often in the post-secondary setting.
Sexual violence in post-secondary institutions is part of a problem that begins long before students apply to university or college. When Belliveau states that, “prevention programs don’t always work”, and mentions “education relating to consent”, I suggest that we are talking about intervention programs, rather than prevention programs. Teaching post-secondary students (age 18 plus) about healthy relationships is an intervention strategy to disrupt the culture that they are saturated in.
When we wait until a person is an adult before we teach them about healthy relationship skills (including consent), then we may be preventing further harm, but I consider this a sexual violence intervention, rather than a prevention initiative.
When it comes to sexualized violence, where the majority of victims are under the age of 18, a prevention program must aim to prevent childhood sexual abuse.
34% of post-secondary students experienced sexual violence before they showed up for their first class.
The median age of child sexual abuse is 9 years old. We, and our children have been raised in a culture where consent was/is neither modeled, nor valued. We have all been encouraged to remain silent about our experiences and to find a path to recovery without guidance, or resources, and while handing in assignments on time and not missing a day of work.
The concept of ‘tipping point’ teaches that when 10% of a population shares a belief or opinion, the majority of the population will adopt that belief or opinion. For example, when only 9% of people believe that reducing and recycling are important, there will be no recycling containers or recycling programs (think 1980's).
But when 10% of the population believes in the importance of reducing and recycling, the scales tip and the critical mass needed to see system wide changes occurs (green bins everywhere). That’s when the idea of reducing and recycling becomes mainstream.
10%.
What do you think happens when 34% of children experience sexual violence? Belliveau cites that for every 10 women who experience sexualized violence only 1 will speak about it.
Some children never tell.
We are living in a society where self-blame and shame own the critical mass.
Consider how popular Brené Brown has become by speaking about shame. She's tapped into a mainstream truth that we have been collectively ignoring. Campaigns, like #believeher, are important to disrupt our society-wide belief that blames and shames victims. A belief that holds critical mass.
But again, teaching people to stop blaming victims and to believe them is an intervention. It’s meant to prevent further harm. Self-blame is a natural human response to being violated. All humans identify as having autonomy and when violence occurs against us, we naturally look for ways to understand what we did that caused the violence.
It takes wisdom, guidance and time to accept that it is possible to have no control. And it takes support to recognize that having no control of a situation is not an indicator of 'being bad'. Think about how easy it is to blame ourselves when things go wrong.
A person who is in a fender bender will think about all the ways they could have prevented the accident… such as leaving at a different time, or choosing a different route. We naturally look for ways that we could have prevented the harm, even when we didn’t do anything to cause the situation.
When a child experiences sexual violence, it is natural and predictable that the child will blame themselves until healing and recovery occur. And of course, this is an important reason for us to consider Belliveau’s suggestion to place Sexual Assault Centre clinics on campus.
We MUST accept our responsibility to provide support to recovering survivors so that we can help transform our communities and experience joy, health and creativity. These are what emerge when shame is reduced or removed. Joy, Health and Creativity.
This is what we will experience when prevention efforts result in children being protected from sexual violence.
Claire Belliveau, I am grateful that you have put together this important opinion piece. I support these initiatives and efforts to end sexualized violence.
I also think it is important to untangle prevention and response services. They should not be competing for a small trinkle of funding.
$20 000.oo per school is not enough to pay a staff person. It certainly isn't enough to fund a prevention effort AND a response service. None of us should be trying to offer response services AND prevention programs with this offensively small amount.
But, people will try.
Well-intentioned people will volunteer, stretch and overwork themselves and others in an effort to make the most out of what is, for most government officials, pocket change.
Because we haven't learned to set healthy boundaries. Because we live in a community where boundaries are not respected, modelled or encouraged.
Do you see the vicious cycle here?
As a prevention advocate, I encourage adults to implement best practices that keep kids safe from sexual abuse. At Priority Kids, we deliver a globally recognized award-winning training that is evidence informed and is proven effective at changing adult behaviours and attitudes to better protect children from sexual abuse.
I have seen the evidence with my own eyes. I know that when adults are trained, they recognize unsafe situations and they intervene. And, I have seen untrained adults overlook red flags and glaring abuses, minimizing concerns, and avoiding responsibility for keeping kids safe.
Our prevention training program does work. It works even better when there is a critical mass.
As a trained adult, I have been advocating for child sexual abuse prevention in my community for over a decade.The resistance to protecting children is abhorrent. But, every time a group of adults come together to learn how to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to childhood sexual abuse we are taking a significant and effective step towards a future where children grow up safe. With their sexual boundaries intact. Where healthy relationships are the norm, and intervention programs will be transformed.
Children will grow up experiencing consent, experiencing respect, and experiencing healthy boundaries. Those will no longer be taught as an intervention strategy. They will be the lived experience.
That is the future we are creating at Priority Kids. And for those who are focused on responding to the harms occurring now (and the harms that have been occurring for our lifetimes), I thank you for your commitment and services.
Please do not give up on prevention. Keeping kids safe from sexual abuse is an important and necessary part of any sexual violence response strategy.
Before you discount or diminish the value and potential of prevention, please come and find out what difference it can make in your community when protecting children from sexual abuse is our top priority.
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Angela Johnston is CEO and Lead trainer at Priority Kids, a training and advocacy company on a mission to eradicate childhood sexual abuse. Angela coordinated a 2-year provincial project to implement a sexual violence strategy among 20 community organizations. In 2015 she was appointed to the Provincial Public Awareness Committee which produced an award winning awareness campaign. Angela has received recognition from the Province of Nova Scotia for her entrepreneurial leadership and innovation for helping to build a better future for the province
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