First Day of the NSAC of 2009

Today was the opening of the National Sexual Assault Conference, held at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center that is located in Alexandria, Virginia. This conference is hosted by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR), and the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA). All three are great power houses in the field of sexual assault.

This conference is a national conference on sexual violence prevention and intervention resources to train women and men from all around the U.S. who work in the field of assisting victims of sexual violence. This conference runs from September 9th - 11th. It also gives people with general interest a chance to trade resources and to find out that what they may be struggling with is not as uncommon as they thought and others may be battling the same issues. It is also a great source of networking.

The opening speech of the day was one of change, taking risk and a tribute to Gail Bird Smith, who passed away over the weekend and was a fierce force in the world of sexual violence.

The first breakout session that I attended was titled "Unfounded Cases and False Reports: A complex Problem". This training was facilitated by Kimberly Lonsway and Joanne Archambault. This training was about the concerns we face in this field from law enforcement in cataloging cases either unfounded or as a false report and how this underlies challenges we face when responding to sexual assault. This workshop explored the many aspects of this complex problem, including the consequences on the individual victim and the wider impact it has on communities. It also reviewed several existing research on the topic and identified recommendations to the participants for the best practice to follow. Very good workshop all information was easy to follow and easy to be able to put into practice.

The keynote speaker at the lunch time speech was Dolores Huerta. Ms. Huerta is the President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation and co-founded the United Farm Workers. In September of 2003 she was appointed to the Board of Regents for the University of California. She has also served on the boards of the Feminist Majority and People of the United Way. Dolores is also a recipient of numerous awards including the Eleanor Roosevelt Humans Rights Award, Ms. Magazine's "Important Women of 1997", Ladies Home Journal's "100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century", and eleven honorary doctrines from universities throughout the U.S. Ms. Huerta has done great things; however, I found her speech, given as a keynote speaker outside the sphere of what this conference is all about. This conference is geared toward the training of individuals who work in the sexual violence field; however, Ms. Huerta took this opportunity to promote her own personal political agenda. Her speech had nothing to do with fighting sexual violence or working with victims of sexual assault, it had all to do with abortion and writing your congressmen to vote for health care reform. I found this very un-appropriate for what we are trying to do about sexual violence intervention and prevention, her political views have no place in a speech that is suppose to be about what the crowd can do when assisting victims. I found her speech to be very bias and offensive. I did end up leaving the speech along with several other conference attendees.

My second and final breakout session for the day was entitled, "Self Nurturing, Resiliency and Empowerment: Engaging our Passions as Adults who have Experienced Trauma". I personally would not of picked this subject; however, my boss registered me and this it what she choose for some reason. This session was conducted by Jean Fei and Chrys Ballerano. This session was intended to explore didactically and collaboratively the ways that art and creative approaches in general, including expressive arts, music therapy, journaling, storytelling, yoga, sports, and movement therapies can engage the victims you work with proactively in the healing process and build their capacity to move their lives to greater wholeness and well being. I found that some of the information was useful; however, I found the presentation a little off the beaten pass for me and the people I work with.

Over all I found the first day of the NSAC informative and I can return to my office with workable ideas for my clients.