By Glenda Gracia-Rivera and Sarah Lundy
Many of us wear pink in October, and rainbow flags dominate the month of June, but the teal ribbon for Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April has not yet commanded our national consciousness.
As practitioners who have spent most of our careers working with young women and girls, we believe it’s time to change that. This year’s theme, “Drawing Connections: Prevention Demands Equity,” offers a great starting point.
When our country began its self-proclaimed racial awakening in 2020, many folks just began to learn and unpack terms like implicit bias, equity, inclusion, and intersectionality. However, for those of us who’ve been engaged in this work for a long time, we’ve always understood that sexual violence is fundamentally tied to systems of oppression.
The host of “isms” that plague our society — sexism, racism, ableism, heterosexism, classism, and others — create a breeding ground of risk factors and societal norms that lead to increased rates of sexual and gender-based violence.
As with any type of oppression, those who live with more than one marginalized identity are disproportionately impacted by sexual violence, and they experience the most harm. Our most vulnerable populations include women and girls of color, youth who identify as LGBTQ+, youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, first-generation immigrants, and those from impoverished communities, to name just a few.
Take, for example, that while 1 in 9 (11%) girls under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse by an adult, that number increases to 1 in 4 (25%) for Black girls under 18. Or consider that undocumented women who are sexually abused cannot report the abuse for fear of being deported. Or that the prevalence of sexual assault increases dramatically as annual household income decreases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says strengthening leadership opportunities for women and girls, particularly in these at-risk groups, is a key component of the fight against sexual violence.
Leadership opportunities lead to greater educational and employment outcomes, as well as increased community engagement, which lowers the risk of being sexually assaulted. Yet girls from these populations often lack access to meaningful, sustained programs.
At the Rutgers Center for Women and Work, we are helping to fill that gap with a leadership development program called Women and Girls ExCEL, which stands for Exemplifying Change, Empowerment, and Leadership. We have teamed up with six community agencies to engage approximately 75 young women and girls from across New Jersey. Participants are mostly Black and Latina, between the ages of 11 and 23, and many of them have seen or experienced sexual violence in their lives.
Each ExCEL group is developing a “Call to Action Project” to identify specific ways to prevent and decrease incidences of sexual violence in their community. In addition, the participants are engaged in personal and professional development workshops, learning skills as diverse as public speaking and self-defense. And they are discussing topics that range from public health equity to period poverty, and the inability to afford menstrual products.
Together, these projects and workshops strengthen each participant’s capacity to communicate, advocate, and see themselves as a change agent — someone who identifies a problem in their community and takes action to fix it.
In ExCEL, that means reducing the prevalence of sexual violence. Whereas many sexual violence programs often focus on post-incident services, this primary prevention approach is unique because it targets the underlying conditions that make sexual assault possible.
In a matter of months, we have seen these young women and girls find their voices, literally and figuratively. We have witnessed the powerful impact of giving them a platform to be seen and affirmed. And we have observed the boost in their self-confidence and the improvement in their communication, organizational and teamwork skills. Though most of them had never heard the term change agent or taken part in leadership development before, they are living, learning, and walking into these roles more purposefully every day.
This important program is funded by the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, Division on Women, and supported by our community partners: Butterfly Dreamz and J.E.S.S.I.C.A. Cares in North Jersey, Sisterwork and Timbuk2 Academy in Central Jersey, and Queens Academy and Raw Wisdom in South Jersey.
Programs like this are necessary so that our most vulnerable young people have safe spaces to grow and connect with their communities, and make their voices heard on an issue that disproportionately affects them. But they should not be alone in this work.
This month and beyond, think about your role in reducing sexual assault and gender-based violence. Consider the many ways that you can bring about change where you live and work.
New Jersey has made it a priority to provide opportunities to empower young women and girls in their approach to reducing these incidents. Will you do the same?
Glenda Gracia-Rivera is the director of professional development and training at the Rutgers Center for Women and Work. Sarah Lundy is a co-founder and co-CEO at Sisterwork.
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