Presented by: Ailene Gamboa California State University, Long Beach May 2013

Introduction

Did you know…  It has been reported that as many as 50% of college-age women experience some type of sexual aggression (Yeater, Treat, Viken, & McFall, 2010) with half of these women becoming victims of attempted or completed rapes (The National Sexual Violence Center, 2010; Wolitzky-Taylor et al., 2011).  The engaging of sexual aggression without consequences garners the idea that these sexual acts are permissible (Decker & Baroni, 2012).  Despite college and community efforts, the prevalence of sexual assault towards women in college has not declined (P.P. McMahon, 2008). The major goals of the program is to:    help college-age women identify the different forms of sexual assault and recognize the risk factors associated with sexual assault; educate college-age women on the physical and mental effects of sexual assault; and educate college-age women on the positive and negative coping mechanisms associated with sexual assault

Social Work Relevance

According to the National Association of Social Worker ’s (NASW; 2012) Code of Ethics, the core values of a social worker include service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. The engaging of sexual aggression without consequences garners the idea that these sexual acts are permissible (Decker & Baroni, 2012). According to Decker and Baroni (2012), because these acts (e.g., petting, kissing, and fondling) are viewed as less severe, women are less likely to report these crimes. It is imperative that education and preventative measures regarding the potential for sexual assault be implemented to promote the health and well-being of vulnerable women of college age.

Cross-cultural Relevance

This program is aimed to assist college-age women from all cultural backgrounds and will provide them with a better understanding of sexual assault. Sexual assault is a problem cross-culturally (Littleton et al., 2009) and assistance should be available regardless of race or cultural background.

Methods

Target Population: This proposed program will be based at the Young Women ’s Association (YWCA) of Long Beach, California and will be made available to all women, who are, at the minimum, of college age in the Long Beach area and will be open to women in the surrounding cities.

Strategies Used to Select Funding Source: The World Wide Web was used to research available grants for violence against women. Private and public databases such as grants.gov (www.grants.gov) and the United States Department of Justice: Office on Violence Against Women (www.ovw.usdoj.gov), provide a list of available grants that was also useful for this particular topic. Other sites such as End Violence Against Women International (www.evawintl.org), S.T.O.P. Violence Against Women Act Grant (www.ok.gov/dac/), and Violence Against Women (www.vawnet.org) listed several available grants to help fund assault programs nationwide. The Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership Library (www.lbnp.org) provided an up-to-date comprehensive database of potential funders. The librarian at California State University of Long Beach was also consulted for additional resources. Key terms such as (or the combination of): sexual assault, against, violence, women, program, and grant, were used to maximize results. Funding Source: The Josephine S. Gumbiner Foundation was selected for the grant proposal. The foundation was established in 1989 by Josephine Gumbiner and is dedicated to support programs that benefit both women and children in Long Beach, California. As a social worker and a licensed clinical therapist, she dedicated her time to a variety of political and charitable activities that helped families in the local Long Beach area. Different programs supported by the foundation include: day care; job training; temporary and transitional housing; after school tutoring and mentoring; arts; health care; and also programs that require intervention, prevention, and direct services. The Josephine S. Gumbiner Foundation has also funded different projects ranging from general operating support for childcare services, to women ’s centers, to cultural programs and intervention programs for children, teens, and at-risk youth. Sources Used for Needs Assessment: The book titled Designing and managing programs: An effectiveness-based approach (Kettner, P. M., Moroney, R. M., & Martin, L.L., 2008) was used to build the needs assessment. It provides step by-step instructions on program planning processes in a logical manner. This book contains format guides from problem analysis through evaluation enabling readers to apply these concepts in their own program plans.

Methods

Psycho-Educational Program on Sexual Assault for College-age Women Budget (x5/Yr)

Expenses Salaries Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) (5%) Social Worker (MSW)(5%) Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN)(3%) Guest Speakers Temporary Personnel ($9/hr for 4 weeks)

Total Salaries

Benefits FICA Taxes (7%) UE Taxes (3%) Workers Compensation (2%) Program Costs

Total Benefits

Advertising Material Program Supplies (Consumable and Nonconsmable) Curriculum Materials Office Supplies Rent Utilities Equipment Incentives

Total Program Costs Total Project Cost

Amount $3,500.00

$3,000.00

$1,800.00

$500.00

$1,440.00

$10,240.00

$718.80

$307.20

$204.80

$1,230.80

$1,000.00

$1,000.00

$2,000.00

$500.00

$2,500.00

$500.00

$5,000.00

$1,000.00

$13,500.00

$24,970.80

Grant Proposal

Program Summary and Description: It is important that education and preventative measures regarding the potential for sexual assault be implemented on college campuses to promote the health and well-being of vulnerable women enrolled in college. This proposed program will present a four-week short-term program that will be held four times throughout the year to promote the awareness of this sexual assault awareness program for the benefit of college-age women. The program will consists of educational PowerPoints and manuals, videos, and slide shows presented by several professionals including a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), a Master of Social Work (MSW), and a Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN), focusing on what is sexual assault and the potential risks; involved the long- and short-term mental and physical affects resulted from sexual assault; coping strategies; and available resources for women. There will also be guest speakers to share their testimony and survival of sexual assault. The proposed sexual assault and rape awareness program can assist and empower female victims as well as educate other college-age women about this crime. With increased knowledge and awareness of sexual assault, these women can minimize the risk of being victimized or re-victimized as they matriculate through their college years. A six-month follow-up survey will be conducted to determine the success of the overall program.

Population Served: College-age women in Long Beach, California and its surrounding cities Sustainability: The Psycho-Educational Program on Sexual Assault for College-age Women will be held 5 times during one academic year. By increased advertisements through flyers, public announcements, and radio broadcasts will increase program awareness. Also, participants may be more accessible when working with the YWCA of Long Beach, California.

Grant Proposal

Program Objectives: •

Objective #1:

After completion of the program, 90% of the attendees will be able to identify at least three of the different forms of sexual assault and three of the risk factors associated with sexual assault.

•

Objective #2:

At the conclusion of the program, 90% of the participants will be able to identify at least three of the physical affects and three of the mental affects related to sexual assault.

•

Objective #3:

After completion of the program, 90% of the participants will be able to identify at least three positive and three negative coping mechanisms.

Program Evaluation: Temporary personnel will be hired to conduct a follow-up questionnaire via telephone six months after completion of the program. The Illinois Rape Acceptance Scale (IRMA) has been the most utilized and most reliable scale to date (McMahon & Farmer, 2011). The scale is constructed into seven subscales: a) She Asked for It, b) It Wasn ’t Really Rape, c) He Didn’t Mean To, d) She Wanted It, e) She Lied, f) Rape Is a Trivial Event, and f) Rape Is a Deviant Event. It is further broken down into 45 statements regarding rape attitudes and is measured using a likert-type scale ranging from 1 being strongly agree to 5 being strongly disagree (McMahon & Farmer, 2011). This type of scale will indicate the effectiveness of the overall program. The data will then be analyzed and interpreted by the LCSW and MSW.

Lessons Learned

Grant Writing Process: For grant writing purposes, it is vital to find an organization whose focus is on the target population of interest. Once the identified organization agrees to pursue a partnership with the grant writer, the grant writer will need to find available grants supporting the proposed program. The identification of funding sources will involve a comprehensive database search from federal, sate, and foundation resources. The next milestone in grant writing is obtaining the actual grant application. Informing the funder that the projected program is part of a capstone can either expedite or bypass the “Letter of Intent” process. The final step is writing the grant. Because of the competitive nature of grant writing, it was in the grant writer ’s best interest to compile a needs assessment demonstrating the need for the particular program, include evidence-based research that clearly supported the need of the proposed program, and a clear and detailed, yet creative, description of the program; making the grant writer stand apart from others trying to obtain the same funding. Barriers and Challenges: First, many of the nonprofit women ’s centers/agencies in the Long Beach area were shut down due to the lack of funds; and those located on college campuses were closed for the summer. The necessity for this type of agency in the area posed a great concern. Because this grant writer had a proposed program prior to finding a host agency, the grant writer had an extremely difficult time finding an agency that was willing to consider adopting a new project. To prevent problems in finding a host agency, the grant writer should have decided on a broad topic; then find an agency that provides services directed towards the target population of interest. Another possible challenge is the lack of advertisement opportunities for the agency. Because the agency is concerned with the safety of their clients, they remain anonymous to the public and are unable to advertise the address or even the general location. Furthermore, this can be a problem when trying to obtain outside participants Implications for Social Work: With this program, college-age women will be better prepared for potential assaults by being able to recognize dangerous situations, identifying risk factors, be more knowledgeable about the physical and mental outcomes of sexual assault, and different coping strategies to help prevent victimization or re-victimization. The proposed rape awareness program can assist and empower victims as well as educate college communities about this crime. The program can also help identify the physical, emotional, and community-based needs of the rape victims to promote prevention strategies. The impact of sexual assault against women continues to be a growing concern for the field of social work. The lack of knowledge will continue to lead to more victimizations and re-victimizations among college-age women and, as a result, they will continue to be at a greater risk for physical injury as well as mental health problems (Zinzow et al., 2011).

References

Decker, J. F., & Baroni, P. G. (2011, Fall). “No” still means “yes” the failure of the “non-consent” reform movement in American rape and sexual assault law.

Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology

,

101

(4), 1081-1169.

Josephine S. Gumbiner Foundation. (2012).

The Josephine S. Gumbiner Foundation.

Retrieved from http:// www.jsgf.org

Littleton, H., Axsom, D., & Grills-Taquechel, A. (2009). Sexual assault victims ’ acknowledgement status and revictimization risk.

Psychology of Women Quarterly

,

33

, 34-42.

McMajon, S., & Farmer, G. L. (2011, June). An updated measure for assessing subtle rapy myths.

Social Work Research

,

35

(2), 71-81. National Association of Social Workers. (2012).

Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers.

Washington, DC: Author.

National Sexual Violence Center. (2010).

NATIONAL SEXUAL VIOLENCE RESOURCE CENTER.

Retrieved from http://nsvrc.org

Wolitzky-Taylor, K. B., Resnick, H. S., Amstadter, A. B., McCauley, J. L., Ruggiero, K. J., & Kilpatrick, D. G. (2011). Reporting rape in a national sample of college women.

Journal of American College Health

,

59

(7), 582-587.

Yeater, E. A., Treat, T. A., Viken, R. J., & McFall, R. M. (2010). Cognitive processes underlying women ’s risk judgments: associations with sexual victimization history and rape myth acceptance.

Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology

,

78

(3), 375-386.

Zinzow, H. M., Amstadter, A. B., McCauley, J. L., Ruggiero, K. J., Resnick, H. S., & Kilpatrick, D. G. (2011, August October). Self-rated health in relation to rape and mental health disorders in a national sample of college women.

Journal of American College Health

,

59

(7), 588-594.