New (and Good) Investigative Reports about Sexual Assault on Campus
Posted by Katie Feifer on 03/04/10 at 04:23:49 PM
In just the last two weeks, several investigative reports have been published on the subject of sexual assault on campus. We think they’re worth reading, sharing and discussing.
From the perspective of many victims, advocates, and lawyers concerned with the civil rights of student survivors, sexual assaults are dealt with by colleges and universities generally poorly. There’s a lot of debate about the roles of various parties in the universities, and to what extent local law enforcement and the criminal justice system ought to be involved. We hope you’ll find these reports as educational and thought-provoking as we do.
1) "Sexual Assault on Campus: A Frustrating Search for Justice", The Center for Public Integrity, February 24, 2010
2) "Seeking Justice for Campus Rapes: an NPR News Investigation (In Four Parts)," March 4, 2010
3) "No Crackdown on Assaults at Colleges", Boston Globe, February 25, 2010
4) Stories from partners in the Investigative News Network about Sexual Assault On Campus - an annotated list of articles and reports with links to each.
The Voices and Faces Project to serve on the National Sexual Assault Conference Advisory Council
Posted by Katie Feifer on 02/24/10 at 06:55:24 PM
The Voices and Faces Project is pleased and honored to be serving on the National Advisory Council for the upcoming National Sexual Assault Conference. This innovative three day conference will bring together a nationwide community of leaders and opinion shapers working on sexual violence issues. The Hollywood Renaissance Hotel will host the gathering, which will challenge its attendees to consider how they can work together in "Building a World We Want to Live In," one that is free of violence against women. CALCASA (the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault) is organizing the conference.
The conference will explore how media representations of sexual violence shape public attitudes, and consider the critical role that activism plays in our movement. It will also call on us to better emphasize wellness/self care for advocates and activists working in the field. "Building a World We Want to Live In" will be a multi-media, multi-dimensional event, one that engages the advocacy community in new and fresh ways. We at The Voices and Faces Project look forward to seeing you there.
The event's "call for speaker abstracts" has just been released, and the organizers look forward to hearing from the community as they build a truly unique 3-day conference. Visit here to submit a proposal.
The Angel Band Project: A CD benefiting survivors of sexual violence
Posted by Katie Feifer on 02/01/10 at 03:42:01 PM
The Voices and Faces Project’s first cd to benefit survivors of sexual violence (The Voices and Faces Project, Volume One) was created with simple goal: to marry the power of music to the issue of sexual violence, finding new ways to open minds and hearts to this human rights and social justice issue.
The second (in-progress) Voices and Faces Project benefit cd, The Angel Band Project, was conceived in that same spirit. It is being co-produced by Jean Fox Robertson and Rachel Ebeling, and it honors the memory of their friend Teresa Butz, who was raped and murdered in 2009.
At Teresa’s funeral in St. Louis and a subsequent memorial service in Seattle, songs performed by Teresa’s ten brothers and sisters and her partner, all of whom are trained musicians, provided a starting point for coming to terms with their terrific sense of loss. The Angel Band Project will feature national recording artists, as well as Teresa’s partner and family (including her Tony Award-winning brother, singer and actor Norb Butz, Jr.) The cd will also feature a small number of artists from the first Voices and Faces Project Benefit album. 100% of The Angel Band Project’s profits will support survivors of sexual violence.
You can find out more about The Angel Band Project on this blog.
Please take a moment to learn more about this amazing project.
R. Clifton Spargo named finalist for Flannery O'Connor prize for short fiction
Posted by Katie Feifer on 12/18/09 at 12:43:33 PM
R. Clifton
Spargo, founding member of CounterQuo and literary advisor to The Voices and Faces Project, was recently selected as a finalist for the 2009 Flannery O'Connor Award
for Short Fiction for "The Things She Has Stolen From Time to Time,"
an innovative sequence of stories centered on a woman who has lived through
sexual violence. "The Things She Has Stolen From Time to Time" asks
us to understand violence not as a single act but as an enduring event with
long-lasting consequences. Stories from the collection have appeared
in Glimmer Train Stories, SOMA, The Connecticut Review, North
Atlantic Review, and The Kenyon Review (forthcoming). Cliff's
fiction, praised by esteemed literary critic Harold Bloom as "marked for
permanence," serves as a powerful reminder of the moral power inherent in
artful representations of injustice. As the co-creator of our Voices
and Faces Project Testimonial Writing Workshop and a 2010 Leon Milman Memorial
Fellow at the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum, Cliff will continue to
play an important role at The Voices and Faces Project as we expand our
creative collaborations in the new year. To find out more about Cliff, visit his website .
"Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art" International Exhibit Comes to San Diego
Posted by Katie Feifer on 10/21/09 at 01:17:45 PM
The Voices and Faces Project is one of the sponsoring organizations for this international art exhibit traveling throughout the world. The exhibition features twenty-one artists from nineteen countries to explore the global ramifications of gender-based violence. Patricia Evans, a founding member of CounterQuo, is one of the artists whose work is featured in this exhibit.
The exhibit will run from October 23 - December 12 at UCSD, before it moves on to Mexico.
Katie Feifer, chair of the CounterQuo leadership committee, will be speaking at a panel discussion October 26 on the subject of "Issues facing individual women: Sexual Assault/Rape, Human Trafficking, and Domestic Violence."
You can learn more about the exhibit and take a virtual tour of it here.
Urgent Action Needed: Secure Federal Funds for Victims of Trafficking
Posted by Katie Feifer on 10/08/09 at 06:15:01 PM
Today, we are at a
crucial moment in the fight against human trafficking: the House Subcommittee
on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies is about to decide
whether or not to provide $15 million for services for survivors of human
trafficking. Please, write to Committee Chairman Mollohan and Ranking
Member Wolf to urge them to fund services for victims of human
trafficking today!
The upwards of 17,500 people who are
trafficked into the United States, plus the tens of thousands of Americans
trafficked internally each year, are in desperate need of services like medical
care, counseling, legal assistance, shelter, education, and employment in order
to recover from horrific abuses and rebuild their lives. Without adequate funds those
services in the U.S. will be underfunded and inaccessible for many
survivors. For many trafficking survivors, these services are the key
to a new life after the horrible ordeal of slavery. Please
take a minute and make your voice heard by asking Reps. Mollohan and Wolf to
provide $15 million for crucial services for survivors to rebuild their lives!
Karen D. Carroll Advances the Cause for SANEs
Posted by Katie Feifer on 10/01/09 at 01:47:09 PM
Karen D. Carroll, RN, SANE-A, NY-SAFE recently gave an interview to Advance for Nurses, highlighting the role of SANEs in helping women in her community and beyond. She notes that in addition to her local work, she has also been able to help women globally by participating in training programs for forensic nurses who work in Japan, Kenya, and other locales.
Karen, a rape survivor herself, summarized the joy of forensic nursing: "It's the ultimate realization of why I became a nurse in the first place," she says, "I can help people I may not ever meet."
Please Vote for the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation
Posted by Katie Feifer on 09/24/09 at 06:04:50 PM
Tom's of Maine, a company known for its social responsibility and community involvement, is holding a contest that will result in five non-profits each being awarded $20,000. CAASE has been chosen as one of 50 finalists out of 2,000 applications.
PLEASE HELP US WIN THIS GRANT.
Simply visit the site's Community Involvement page and click on the tab "Community". The CAASE project is “Engaging Young Men In Ending Violence Against Women.”
You can vote once a day every day until October 30th.
So please vote, and send this on to your friends, and post it on Facebook, and Twitter, and any other way you let people know about important causes.
Thanks for your support!
CounterQuo Members Launch "End Demand Illinois" to End Prostitution and Sex Trafficking
Posted by Anne Ream on 09/20/09 at 01:26:57 PM
Rachel Durchslag and Samir Goswami, CounterQuo members at the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) have just launched “End Demand Illinois.”
Jennifer and Peter Buffett of the Buffett Family's NoVo Foundation (the major funder of this campaign) and other movement allies (including Jody Raphael and Katie Feifer, also from our CounterQuo team) have worked with Rachel and Samir to lay the groundwork for this campaign. The campaign launch event held in Chicago on Sept.18 included Ambassador Mark Lagon and feminist legal visionary Catherine A. MacKinnon, who has been a role model for so many of us. CounterQuo materials were distributed at the launch, as part of a reminder that trafficking and sexual exploitation are not separate from, but a critical part of, the fight to end sexual violence.
As Jennifer Buffett noted in her remarks, advocates and leaders on trafficking here and worldwide are looking closely at the "End Demand" campaign as a model.
Fairbanks Republican Women Federated to Learn about Sexual Violence
Posted by Katie Feifer on 08/23/09 at 01:50:14 PM
Anne Ream, co-founder of CounterQuo and President of The Voices and Faces Project, will be the featured speaker at a luncheon on October 2 in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. The event is chaired by Stpehanie Hanson, who's on the board of End Violence Against Women International.
The event is sponsored by Fairbanks Republican Women Federated, and will also feature talks by Bonnie Dumanis, District Attorney for San Diego County, and Rep. John Shaddegg - one of the sponsor's of Jenny's Law.
The theme of Anne's talk will be on rape as a bi-partisan (non-partisan) issue. It is aimed at creating a more inclusive movement, one in which Democrats, Republicans and Independents work side by side to take on rape and abuse.
The event that Stephanie is leading the charge on is an exciting opportunity to bring new allies together. We're always glad to see people of different political and ideological leanings listening and learning from each other about sexual violence. Read more about the event here.