2019 CONNECTIONS

An Annual Publication of Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs

Volume XXIII

2019

Healing Activated!

In this issue:

The Role of Activism in Survivor Recovery

Reflections on Kavanaugh Confirmation Activism A conversation with Leah Green

Survivors in Action: Profiles in Healing through Art & Activism WCSAP

Program Highlight Beyond Survival

A conversation with Maddie Graves-Wilson

Survivor Volunteerism Tabitha Donohue

Activist Burn-Out and Self-Care Know Your IX

Question Oppression Resources

Silence is one of patriarchy’s most oppressive mandates. We have the gift of testimony and our longheld philosophy of empowerment to fight back.

Letter from the Editor Michelle Dixon-Wall Resource Sharing Project Coordinator, WCSAP

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even years ago, I interviewed several survivors for an assessment project at my local program as part of the national Sexual Assault Demonstration Initiative. We wanted to know what helped survivors heal so we could best align our services with needs of those in our community.

The survivors I spoke with identified that their participation in the anti-violence sexual violence movement contributed most to their healing. It was the only unifying healing aspect all survivors shared with me. What I discovered should not have been surprising but I was taken aback Because I realized two things: 1. in my many years of sexual assault advocacy, this was not something I had considered working with survivors around, and 2. as a survivor myself, this was exactly what I was doing here in this work: healing.

With the surge of activism, we have seen in this last year and half surrounding the #MeToo Movement and the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings it is clear that survivors have been itching to move the needle and are more than ready to share their stories as a catalyst for change. The sea change has inspired us here at WCSAP to dedicate this publication to survivor activism and the healing found in it.

Whether it is writing a letter to the editor, participating in Take Back the Night, making change on Campus, protesting, performing, testifying, or voting, survivor activism helps to transform traumatic experiences into something vital and meaningful for society. Even when activism is not specific to sexual violence, using your voice and building your power is healing.

Silence is one of patriarchy’s most oppressive mandates. We have the gift of testimony and our long-held philosophy of empowerment to fight back.

Volume XXIII 2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Reflections on Kavanaugh Confirmation Activism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

4317 6th Ave SE, Suite 102 Olympia, WA 98503 (360) 754-7583 (360) 709-0305 TTY (360) 786-8707 FAX

A conversation with Leah Green

Survivors in Action: Profiles in Healing through Art & Activism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 WCSAP

Program Highlight: Beyond Survival. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

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The Role of Activism in Survivor Recovery The mission of the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs is to unite agencies engaged in the elimination of sexual violence through education, advocacy, victim services, and social change.

Connections Magazine is published annually and mailed to subscribing members of WCSAP. For membership information and to view articles online visit: www.wcsap.org Editor: Michelle Dixon-Wall Design © Debi Bodett www.DebiBodett.com

A conversation with Maddie Graves-Wilson

Survivor Volunteerism.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Tabitha Donohue

Activist Burn-Out and Self-Care. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Know Your IX

Question Oppression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Cover photo © Alice Donovan Rouse. Boston, United States. This sign was a trademark of the Women’s Marches around the world. The posters were available to download for free and were printed by many as a (literal) sign of solidarity. https://obeygiant.com/people-art-avail-download-free/

“One point of this healing journey is not just personal, but to use my personal narrative to create a better world. I want my story to be a jumping off point to critically understand what oppression is and how it relates to child abuse. I want you to make a commitment, if you have not already, to take responsibility for the kind of society you really want to live in. Any understanding you come to as a result of my words must push us forward to concretely and physically transforming society.�

-billie rain, The Healing Journey as a Site of Resistance

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Reflections on Kavanaugh Confirmation Activism A conversation with Leah Green

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exual assaults survivors nationally were deeply impacted by this year’s confirmation hearings on Supreme Court nominee (and now Justice) Brett Kavanaugh. It was the boiling point that propelled us to claim our #MeToo promise in earnest, through anger and activism.

Many survivors were there in the midst of the hearings-- lobbying senators in hallways, staging sit-ins in offices, and rallying those at home to keep calling and tweeting their representatives.

Ana Maria Archila, was one of the women who confronted Senator Jeff Flake. About this activism she said, “what happened in that elevator was the result of thousands and thousands of women survivors and survivors of all genders who are doing something incredibly dangerous and incredibly generous.”

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The national Women’s Law Center, Know Your IX, End Rape on Campus, and other leading organizations sponsored survivors to travel to D.C. to lobby their senators in person and participate in actions. Leah Green was one of those who was there, too. A survivor who works in the anti-sexual violence movement, Leah activated her support system and went to D.C. with organizers all over the country to speak out. She generously agreed to talked about her experience with us.

Editor: You were present in DC at protests related to the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, what made you decide to go?

It just felt right. I saw they were looking for people with the ability to go to D.C. at short notice and I thought about all the survivors who might want to go but didn’t have the access. I have the privilege to work for an organization that gave me adequate enough vacation time, I had a partner that was going to be supportive to me while I was there, I had friends around the country from whom I could seek support, and the economic privilege to financially take care of myself in DC if that needed to happen.

I looked at my situation and saw I had the real ability to go so I just felt like I had to, who else was going to be supported in going at such a short notice-- if not me, who else was going to be able to go?

I knew that going would feel like taking an action and it was an impulse that I had to follow.

I was really worried that once I got there I would fall apart and that it was going to be terrible but there was a part of me that felt like I had to do it anyway.

I have found that sometimes when I do things that really trigger my survivorship or are really hard, it helps me. Because even though it was hard, I got through it and at the end of it I feel some sort of relief, like I got just a little bit farther down the path.

I rallied support around me before going: I had supervisors who engaged me in conversations about what I thought that was going to be like and how they could best support me. I connected with the community of support I had around me to let them know I was doing this and people offered to be on-call to support me.

I connected in a friend in D.C. who offered to let me stay with her, to walk me to the Capitol, whatever I might find helpful.

And then I had to tell my family. I don’t have a strong relationship with my family. But I knew that if I went I would talk about my survivorship and that involves my family so I felt the need to give them a heads up. I didn’t know what was going to happen or what the experience was going to be like.

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Editor: From home, we saw a lot of survivors there, telling their stories and lobbying senators in hallways. What was it like to be there?

I think the only other experience that I have had that was even somewhat similar was going to NSAC (National Sexual Assault Conference). In the two block area of the Capitol and the Senate buildings, every single person you encountered was an activist or person trying to help survivors, or survivors themselves. It felt like almost everywhere you looked there were people who were excited to engage with you. When we were in The Russell (Senate Office Building) a group of us took a trip to the bathroom and the woman cleaning the bathroom asked what we were doing there and when we told her even she was like “give ‘em hell.” So, it was cool to see that even people who were just working in the building, that weren’t here for the protests engaged with us and were supportive of us. It was overwhelming to see and feel the support.

We went to watch the vote and there were hundreds of people waiting to get in and all the people in line around us were engaging with us in conversation. I befriended others who had flocked to D.C. from all over the country to witness and participate in their own form of activism. I was surprised by how exhilarating it all felt, despite the somber reason for bringing us all together.

Editor: How do you think participation in these types of actions contribute to your healing?

For me, the most powerful healing that I’ve done is getting the opportunity to say the words out loud in public because for so many years I was terrified to talk about it.

Holding it in did so much damage to me, that to say the words out loud as often and as loudly as possible has, on a level, undone some of that trauma.

So this felt like the next big scary step. I talk about my survivorship with friend, my colleagues, my partner, and only very recently started to engage in some of these conversations with my family and to out myself as a survivor in my work. But this felt like another level-- getting the opportunity to do this as a private citizen, but on the national scale and being in D.C. [pull out quote] I think that rallying around me to try to fortify myself before I went gave me an opportunity to take stock of my support system and how many people around me supported me. How much support and love I had for myself and understanding my power as an adult to make decisions and do this for myself — how far I’ve really come.

I worried that it would feel scary or angry or violent but actually it was like everyone was just excited to make friends and build community.

In the end I utilized almost none of the support I rallied around me before I left. There was so much support physically in D.C.-- the organizers that brought us and other activists were so trauma-informed and were natural born advocates. They did an amazing job of taking care of us-- answering our questions, making sure we felt comfortable, and knew where to go and what to say and what to do.

It was indescribable.

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Editor: Healing is such a complicated process for so many survivors. In a lot of publications we make, we use a lot of calming images like nature, water, etc. to discuss healing. And there is such a contrast between, like trauma-informed yoga, and Ana Maria Archila passionately confronting Senator Jeff Flake in the elevator. But all can be healing! I felt the most moved by the women in the elevator (Ana Maria Archila and Maria Gallagher). I watched everything about the Kavanaugh confirmation from beginning to the end and it was those women that, like, broke me open and I was like “yes, these are my heroes right here.” I reflected on this because they were private citizens who were angry and that they made a shift with their words-whether it created a longer term solution or not, doesn’t matter-- it was that shift and process of confronting someone and being angry. I saw in that encounter something I, as a survivor, didn’t know I had desperately needed. How do we hold all of these complexities of healing and foster and communicate that there can be so many ways to heal and offer services?

We have to create mechanisms within our communities and organizations to allow for survivors to give feedback about what is being offered-- about what they need-- and then we have to listen to them. Survivors are going to be the ones to tell us what’s healing for them, and what is working for them. I’m with you-- it all feels healing.

When I go on a hike it feels healing, when I go to yell at (Senator) Grassley it feels healing — all of that works together.

The other thing we can do is to help point this out to survivors and help them process it.

Reflecting on my experience in D.C. is a whole other level of healing than actually going. It is getting an opportunity to think more critically on why that experience felt good to me and, obviously, this conversation is one of those opportunities. When my partner talked to me about what, in the end, I got out of the experience-- that conversation is part of the healing too. It encourages me to do my own reflection and then that helps me figure out what’s the next thing I want to do or, what is another thing I can put on my list of things that feel healing for me. Having someone ask: What felt hard? What do you feel proud about? And to engage with me to reflect and process what I need and what feels good and what I want to happen next.

Bio Leah Green is a survivor and sexual assault professional living in Des Moines, Iowa. www.wcsap.org

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Survivors in Action:

Profiles in Healing through Art & Activism WCSAP

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Amanda Nguyen Amanda Nguyen is a survivor of college campus sexual assault. After undergoing a rape kit examination, police informed Nguyen that her kit would be destroyed after six months if she didn’t submit an extension request. Every six months, Nguyen had to resubmit an extension request to ensure that her rape kit wouldn’t be destroyed in the hopes that it could be tested for her attacker’s DNA. Her experiences of retraumatization moved her to create the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, legislation to ensure basic civil rights to victims when they first report being raped and during the medical and legal ordeals that follow. Nguyen was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work.

“I look at it as a metaphor — every time a survivor tells me his or her story it is like they are handing over a coal. It is a weight I carry but also it keeps my fire to fight alive.”1

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Tabitha Mpamira-Kaguri In rural Uganda, Tabitha Mpamira-Kaguri, a teacher, was driven to action by the stories of rape and sexual abuse from her young students and the entire lack of justice afforded them. She started the EDJA Foundation which engages in public advocacy efforts including radio shows, advertisements, and community meetings, EDJA staff members and volunteers teach victims of sexual violence that it’s possible to come forward with stories of abuse and that it can be the first step toward healing, achieving justice, and ending patterns of abuse.

“I actually think my perpetrator is very influential in my purpose and my life. If it weren’t for [my own] horrendous experience, I wouldn’t have the zeal and passion for sexual-trauma healing that I do now. The day I decided to start this work officially, it was that still voice that whispered ‘Why do you get the luxury to wait, when they are hurting now?’”2

Scheherazade & Salamishah Tillet When Scheherazade Tillet learned that her older sister, Salamishah, was a rape survivor, Scheherazade turned to photography and began documenting Salamishah’s recovery journey.

In 2003, the Tillet sisters co-founded A Long Walk Home, the only organization in the country that uses art therapy and the visual and performing arts to end violence against women and girls and provide innovative and inclusive programs for underserved communities.

“With each passing day, more young women accuse R. Kelly of sexual assault.

That means more people and institutions — with the glaring exception of his label, RCA records — are taking their voices, and, by extension, girls who look like them, seriously. We’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. Let’s not squander it.”3 9

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Aspen Matis Aspen Matis published her memoir Girl in the Woods to share her story of rape, recklessness, and recovery.

She sought healing on the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail leading from Mexico to Canada, hiking for 5 months.

“As writers, we have tremendous power. If something happens to us, we have the power to not only learn from it but to take something bad and transform it into one of the most beautiful things that never could have happened–that I never could have write if these bad things hadn’t happened.

It’s not extraordinary that all these stories are becoming national news. It’s extraordinary that they weren’t before. There has been a systemic silencing, but I feel like I’m at the beginning of a mountain wave of a movement.”4

1

“The Rape Survivor Who Turned Her Activism into A Nobel Peace Prize Nomination”, Huffington Post, July 2018.

2

“Turning Pain into Power,” heartsonfire.org.

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“After the ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ Documentary, #MeToo Has Finally Returned to Black Girls,” New York Times, January 2019.

“I’m at the Beginning of a Movement: These Sexual Assault Survivors Are Coming Forward So Other Women Can Find a Voice,” Marie Claire, December 2015.

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We know that healing is not a linear process.

As the authors of The Courage to Heal explain, “(y)ou go through the same stages again and again; but traveling up the spiral, you pass through them at a different level, with a different perspective…With each new cycle, your capacity to feel, to remember, to make lasting changes is strengthened.”

- Bass & Davis, 2008

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PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT

Beyond Survival A conversation with Maddie Graves-Wilson

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hat can it look like in our advocacy programs to offer healing and growth services for folks in this spiral journey, those who are activated to do more and have moved long past the initial crisis? We asked Maddie Graves-Wilson, MSW, Executive Director at Beyond Survival to talk with us about how they support the healing journeys of survivors through their services, specifically their new Thriver’s Group.

Editor: What is Thriver’s Group?

Thriver’s group is a peer support group for Beyond Survival staff and clients who are survivors of sexual assault and are ready to move forward as advocates against sexual violence in our community.

Editor: What was the impetus for Beyond Survival to start this group?

We as a staff started this group because we had a number of clients who had done the (support) groups, had done one-on-ones, and now they were looking for a way to give back. They really were no longer in the stages of crisis and deep depression many survivors experience after assault/abuse.

These folks had found a fire in them and a passion for the work we do here at Beyond Survival and wanted to participate in it.

Editor: What are ways survivors in this group use or engage in activism or volunteerism?

Our group started in August, although it is a new endeavor many of the participants have stepped in fully expecting to be a leading force to volunteer. We will be having Core training this month and some of the participants are going to sign up so they will be able to assist with the crisis line. Another Thriver presented her poetry at an event for us and was able to articulate to our community how Beyond Survival has assisted her in her trauma recovery.

Editor: How do survivors move from support and discussion to more action oriented-activities?

We are using this group to encourage survivors to be a voice in our movement. One of our core values as an agency is sustainability and with this group we are hoping to establish a network of trained advocates who are also survivors to support their peers through the healing process.

In our rural community this is our step toward a sustainable service model.

Bio Beyond Survival strives to support, educate & empower all people impacted by Sexual Abuse in Grays Harbor County, Washington.

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Survivor Volunteerism Tabitha Donohue

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urvivor volunteerism is another, and sometimes more accessible, way survivors can engage in activism. Many survivors find healing in opportunities to get involved in anti-sexual violence work through volunteering, employment, or internships. For individuals who have experienced trauma, learning more about it is a helpful way of processing it and moving forward. Volunteering has the potential to be more of a long term commitment than other activism platforms. Depending on the community sexual assault program’s volunteer needs, activities usually fall along a continuum of services. Types of volunteer activities can include direct advocacy with other survivors, community outreach and engagement, 13

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administrative work, and event planning. Even within community sexual assault programs, volunteer survivors continue to have options for how they choose to engage.

During my time as a Volunteer Program Coordinator, many applicants self-disclosed that survivorship was their main motivation to volunteer. They often identified this factor as both helpful and harmful in their volunteer engagement. On the one hand, they felt acute levels of empathy, and had an understanding about sexual violence dynamics and rape culture. On the other hand, their personal trauma experiences sometimes left them feeling particularly vulnerable to trauma triggers.

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“People want to give survivors the opportunity to tell their stories, and I wholeheartedly believe in that. I believe that, particularly for survivors who have felt silenced and haven’t had an opportunity to tell their story, they should have that opportunity. But I don’t believe that having the repository of stories about trauma is a way to heal. I feel that one of the strongest pathways to healing is releasing your story, and then doing the work required to begin to heal. This is not really a movement about trauma—it’s a movement about joy. It’s a movement about love and about respect, and it’s about finding the ways that we can cultivate those things in our lives so that we can use them to combat the trauma we’ve experienced.” - Tarana Burke

The decision of how to engage as a survivor volunteer takes immense courage: courage to be reflective, and courage to practice healthy boundaries. Self-reflection can include examining personal bias, motivation to help, and individual trauma responses. Identifying and practicing boundaries then creates space for self-care, and for helping other survivors without attempting to “rescue” them. The balance can be tricky: this work can be incredibly empowering as a survivor, but we begin to shift from that empowerment model when make the focus about our own healing rather than the needs of survivors.

Volunteer Program Considerations ✔✔ Ensure there are volunteer opportunities appropriate for survivors who are not ready to engage in trauma work. Can they do childcare, prevention work, stuff envelopes for direct mail campaigns, write blog posts, or organize donations? ✔✔ For individuals who have experienced trauma, learning more about it is a helpful way of processing it and moving forward. Is your volunteer training open to survivors who may not yet know how or if they’d like to volunteer? Do you have classes or training offered to community members? ✔✔ Survivors may feel moved to speak publicly about their experiences. Are there ways your volunteer program can incorporate survivor speakers into your training or events? ✔✔ Because healing is not linear, there is no set time where a survivor would be deemed ready for trauma work. ✔✔ Have a discussion with potential volunteers about the unique experiences of survivors and what helps healing.

Survivors will know what helped them heal but not all might have openness to how other survivors experience healing and justice. Someone may not be ready to support survivors if they feel their way of getting help is the best or only way. ✔✔ Help new volunteers think about how they will respond to direct questions about their survivorship like, “has this happened to you, too?” ✔✔ Plan with volunteers. Think through possible triggers and work together to create plans for if they should happen like, going to the restroom to reset, grounding activities, etc.

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caring for myself

IS NOT SELF-INDULGENCE it’s SELF-PRESERVATION and that is an act of

POLITICAL WARFARE

Audre Lorde

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Activist Burn-Out and Self-Care

By Suzanna Bobadilla & Kate Sim, Know Your IX Reprinted with permission

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et’s be real: this work is hard. It takes time, it can be disappointing, and it sure is draining sometimes. For survivor-activists, our activism can be doubly overwhelming because we are in the process of healing and processing our own experiences of trauma, in addition to learning how to organize anti-rape culture campaigns on our respective campuses.

We are also doing a million other things, from schoolwork to extracurricular activities.

Unfortunately, rape culture isn’t going away anytime soon, and that means that we need to be able to sustain our energy and ourselves.

“Self-care” refers to attitudes and behaviors we engage in to honor our needs and prioritize our well-being. Too often, self-care is relegated as simply “taking a break.” This, however, can be

extremely challenging for two reasons. On one hand, it is extremely challenging to actually value our own well-being in a victim-blaming, sexist world that constantly tells us that the needs and interests of survivors are insignificant.

On the other hand, as activists, “taking a break” can seem like a drastic action, almost like a copout or even an act of betrayal against our coorganizers.

Yet, many existing dialogue about self-care do not provide concrete and productive ways of actually practicing self-care. While these are certainly relaxing activities, they do not address how we can practice self-care in our daily lives.

Following, we offer a few principles that we have found helpful in prioritizing our self-care as activists who are in this fight for the long run.

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RECOGNIZE THAT OUR ACTIVISM IS OUR SELF-CARE. Why did we even get ourselves into this mess and cause ourselves all this stress? Because we care. Activism is our way of caring for ourselves, regardless of the extra difficulty it may bring to our lives. It is through activism that we find support networks, validate our traumas and healing, and envision safer schools without rape culture. There are aspects of this work that can be overwhelming and draining, but ultimately, we are doing work that is generative.

OUR FEELINGS — GOOD AND BAD — ARE REAL. We are often told to just “feel better”: do some stretches, take a long walk, and treat yourself.

For some, this might be hugely effective. Yet, for many of us, “negativity” is our inspiration — it is inseparable from our activism. We would not be doing this work if we weren’t sufficiently angry about the injustices perpetrated by attackers and universities. Yet, we are told by classmates, administration, and even friends and families, that we are too “negative” or that we have too much “hatred for the school.” But anger is and can be generative. It drives us, it gives us insight, and it builds solidarity.

Besides, this “negativity” is often linked to the joys we experience from our activism: at the small victories and at new friends and allies. Validate your experiences — good or bad — as they are.

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ACTIVISM IS OUR WAY OF CARING FOR OURSELVES, REGARDLESS OF THE EXTRA DIFFICULTY IT MAY BRING TO OUR LIVES. IT IS THROUGH ACTIVISM THAT WE FIND SUPPORT NETWORKS, VALIDATE OUR TRAUMAS AND HEALING, AND ENVISION SAFER SCHOOLS WITHOUT RAPE CULTURE.

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THERE IS NO RIGHT WAY TO DO SELF-CARE. What are specific actions you take that relax you? These can range from taking a mini break after hours spent on your gmail and listening to music to cooking and taking a nap. Below are a few suggestions of concrete actions that include a time frame: ✘✘ Turn off your phone or internet for X minutes ✘✘ Set a bed time in order to get at least 8 hours of sleep, or as much sleep as you need ✘✘ Eat meals regularly ✘✘ Set aside breaks and make sure not to schedule anything during those times ✘✘ Take a nap for X minutes ✘✘ Take a walk or work out ✘✘ Listen to music, play an instrument ✘✘ Find funny websites ✘✘ Spend time with supportive people

SELF-CARE REQUIRES PLANNING. To reiterate: we “practice” self-care. This means that we have to concretize self-care into specific actions and plan them into our schedule so that they are integrated into our daily lives. Write them into your planner. For example, you can write in “take a X minute-long break after an hour of reading/emailing.” Or, make a to-do list in order of due-dates so that you can prioritize tasks by urgency. Involve people in your support network (i.e. friends, family, co-organizers), so that you have company who are holding you accountable to putting your well-being first.

We hope that these are helpful suggestions for integrating self-care into your daily life. But, we also want to recognize that, maybe, you are feeling overwhelmed because you are doing too much. If you feel that you have too much at hand, perhaps it warrants a conversation with your co-organizers about task delegation.

We suggest calling a meeting with your co-organizers to have a frank conversation about how much everyone is actually doing: you may find out that someone is willing to take some load off you. Using “I” statements, be very specific about exactly which tasks you are doing and how much time you are committing to those tasks. This is helpful for two reasons: it itemizes what are you stressed out about and it communicates to your coorganizers that you need help.

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Question Oppression Exploring the Connections Between Sexual Violence & Oppression Use these questions to explore the connections between sexual violence and oppression with staff, volunteers, or board members.

​ hat implicit biases might W we have related to survivors’ anger? Do we allow anger from privileged populations more than those who are targets of oppression?

Try discussing one or more at a staff meeting, in-service, volunteer training, or board retreat.

How can we ally anti-sexual violence activism with anti-racist movements and other social justice activism?

Are there concrete ways we can support community and survivor activism? What resources do we have to offer?

Resources • Sisters Testify https://www.sisterstestify.com/about/the-proclamation/ More than 1600 African American Women signed “In Defense of Ourselves” following Anita Hill’s testimony during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Clarence Thomas’ nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

• #MeToo Rising https://metoorising.withgoogle.com/ Explore a visualization of the #MeToo movement from Google Trends • Know Your IX, Campus Action Toolkit https://www.knowyourix.org/campus-action/ This toolkit includes: resources on writing an open letter, organizing on campus, identifying issues, building a team, planning a campaign, media coverage, and more.

• #SurvivorsVote https://www.movetoendviolence.org/blog/survivorsvote/ A movement of survivors exercising their political agency and power through voting and sharing their stories.

• Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, “Sharing Your Story: A Guide for Sexual Violence Survivors” https://barcc.org/assets/docs/Sharing_Your_Story_How_to_Think_through_Your_Options.pdf This is a workbook for survivors who are thinking about sharing their story publicly and includes considerations for a survivor’s goals, platform, privacy, safety, emotional well-being, and more. www.wcsap.org

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Non-Profit US Postage PAID Olympia, WA Permit #282

Volume X, Number 2

Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs WCSAP 4317 6th Ave SE, Suite 102 Olympia, WA 98503 (360) 754-7583 (360) 709-0305 TTY (360) 786-8707 FAX

is YOUR magazine.

We invite guest authors to submit pieces on a variety of topics, and welcome your submissions on advocacy approaches, media reviews, and creative work like original art or poetry.

We would also like to feature highlights of your agency and the advocacy work you are doing.

Direct submissions to advocacy@wcsap.org

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For information about becoming a member of WCSAP, please e-mail us at info@wcsap.org, or call (360) 754-7583.