...Last week I had the honor and privilege of speaking (as I do each semester) to the Victimology class at University of Pennsylvania. I very much enjoy speaking to this bright, attentive group of students who always ask thoughtful, insightful questions.
Following the speech, after the students left class Dr. Kathleen Brown and I had a conversation regarding the importance of a specific focus in my speech which is to seek counseling after being the victim of a date rape/sexual assault. Her students are part of the Nursing program at the university and know frequently victims are encouraged to get medical attention and report to law enforcement but the discussion is less focused on counseling and therapy.
Dr. Brown also shared with me her recent involvement with the growing epidemic of human trafficking and the healing process for those victims. We talked about the latest obstacle to overcome is getting the message out to sexual assault victims. The message inclusive of, what type of help is out there and how much there is available. We agreed there is a need to figure out an efficient way to get the information to the victims. We have so many outlets (internet, social media, even the medical community and law enforcement involved, etc.) to get the resources available to the victims but have yet to figure out the best way to do so.
This is not the first time I have considered the issue. In an effort to promote my public speaking and advocacy I am trying to figure out new and innovative ways to get my message out. What groups of people can I get to tell my story to that have the ability to influence others? I spend endless hours each week researching and using whatever means possible to connect to those in a position of power. If I can email, tweet, message the right person I can start a domino effect that ends in expanded awareness.
I feel we are all in this together fighting for awareness and as victims, survivors, advocates, counselors, concerned humans our voices are loud and strong. If anyone has an idea to share with me or wants to team up we can heal those victims of sexual violence so they can ultimately lead long, healthy lives...just as I did.
Showing posts with label Advocacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advocacy. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Media and Promotion
...June was a really good month for me in terms of expanding my public speaking and advocacy horizons.
First I received an email from my colleague at Strength United who had gotten a request from a production company with a documentary show in development. They were looking for sexual assault survivors like me who had gone through with the legal process and comfortable talking about my experience. Just like with Primetime Crime and Very Bad Men I was glad to hear about any media exposure of awareness for rape and sexual assault. Instead of being interviewed in front of the camera I would serve as a consultant behind the scenes that could assist them with navigating through questions they had for parts of the layout of the show. I thanked Ann for the reference and contacted the show's producer immediately. We had a very nice conversation as he informed me of what they had planned for the show and I filled him in on what the past 10 years had been like for me. I was then given all the details over the phone which was followed up with an email of the agenda for their day of filming. That day I met other brave victims/survivors and advocates and we all shared our stories with each other. Many times you learn the overall experiences are similar. When this happens I feel comforted in knowing sadly it's not just me dealing with those thoughts and feelings. I also met with the entire show staff. These people were amazing and supportive and very appreciative of the time we donated that day. We all felt good about the direction of the show and confident the project will be successful. I am bound by a confidentiality agreement at this point but will share more once I know the show will air on TV.
Then Steve had interviewed an agent for his podcast and he relayed my story and what I was doing to him. His guest generously offered to have me contact him because he knew of the perfect woman (an Agent) that I could get in touch with for advice, etc. Securing an agent was on my list but before I did that I had several other things to accomplish first before doing so including a website I was proud of and building up my resume a bit more which I had been doing thanks to speaking I had done in the LA area and the podcast's. It was the perfect time to get to that item on the Expanding my Business list. So I contacted the agent letting her know how I was referred to her and gave her everything she needed to know about me and what I was doing. She responded very quickly and filled me in on a new business venture she was involved in that her friend wasn't even aware of yet. It was called Girls Fight Back a "Sassy Self Defense Guide" which offers practical and empowering options for young women to learn violence prevention and self-defense. She kindly offered to meet with me and I very much appreciated her taking valuable time out of the day to do so. We met for about 45 minutes and she provided me with advice for my website, promoting myself and my business and a lot of other information that I couldn't wait to take home and implement. I was grateful!
Next and in my never ending research to learn all I can about the business I was in and how to get my message out there with as much exposure as possible with respectable organizations I continued to reach out to women's only organizations. Who better to know how to run a female business and promoting themselves than women who have done it before. I found a great organization call Women's Media Center who offers a database of experience, talented women from all backgrounds to the media specifically looking for this demographic. Since I had television and radio interview experience I jumped at the chance to complete the application and submit it. This could open a lot of doors in which to get my message out to even more audiences. I very proudly received my acceptance a week later and all the information I needed to know as a part of their database of women. I was flattered an excited to be part of a prestigious group of women and looking forward to the doors it will open for me.
Six months into JoAnnSpeaksOut and I was off to a good start if I may say so myself!!...
If you're interested in learning more about the organizations I mentioned below are the links:
Girls Fight Back
Women's Media Center
First I received an email from my colleague at Strength United who had gotten a request from a production company with a documentary show in development. They were looking for sexual assault survivors like me who had gone through with the legal process and comfortable talking about my experience. Just like with Primetime Crime and Very Bad Men I was glad to hear about any media exposure of awareness for rape and sexual assault. Instead of being interviewed in front of the camera I would serve as a consultant behind the scenes that could assist them with navigating through questions they had for parts of the layout of the show. I thanked Ann for the reference and contacted the show's producer immediately. We had a very nice conversation as he informed me of what they had planned for the show and I filled him in on what the past 10 years had been like for me. I was then given all the details over the phone which was followed up with an email of the agenda for their day of filming. That day I met other brave victims/survivors and advocates and we all shared our stories with each other. Many times you learn the overall experiences are similar. When this happens I feel comforted in knowing sadly it's not just me dealing with those thoughts and feelings. I also met with the entire show staff. These people were amazing and supportive and very appreciative of the time we donated that day. We all felt good about the direction of the show and confident the project will be successful. I am bound by a confidentiality agreement at this point but will share more once I know the show will air on TV.
Then Steve had interviewed an agent for his podcast and he relayed my story and what I was doing to him. His guest generously offered to have me contact him because he knew of the perfect woman (an Agent) that I could get in touch with for advice, etc. Securing an agent was on my list but before I did that I had several other things to accomplish first before doing so including a website I was proud of and building up my resume a bit more which I had been doing thanks to speaking I had done in the LA area and the podcast's. It was the perfect time to get to that item on the Expanding my Business list. So I contacted the agent letting her know how I was referred to her and gave her everything she needed to know about me and what I was doing. She responded very quickly and filled me in on a new business venture she was involved in that her friend wasn't even aware of yet. It was called Girls Fight Back a "Sassy Self Defense Guide" which offers practical and empowering options for young women to learn violence prevention and self-defense. She kindly offered to meet with me and I very much appreciated her taking valuable time out of the day to do so. We met for about 45 minutes and she provided me with advice for my website, promoting myself and my business and a lot of other information that I couldn't wait to take home and implement. I was grateful!
Next and in my never ending research to learn all I can about the business I was in and how to get my message out there with as much exposure as possible with respectable organizations I continued to reach out to women's only organizations. Who better to know how to run a female business and promoting themselves than women who have done it before. I found a great organization call Women's Media Center who offers a database of experience, talented women from all backgrounds to the media specifically looking for this demographic. Since I had television and radio interview experience I jumped at the chance to complete the application and submit it. This could open a lot of doors in which to get my message out to even more audiences. I very proudly received my acceptance a week later and all the information I needed to know as a part of their database of women. I was flattered an excited to be part of a prestigious group of women and looking forward to the doors it will open for me.
Six months into JoAnnSpeaksOut and I was off to a good start if I may say so myself!!...
If you're interested in learning more about the organizations I mentioned below are the links:
Girls Fight Back
Women's Media Center
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
New Year, New Career
...So I had never started my own business before or worked for myself in any capacity. I was entering into a brave new world. The good thing was I had ideas and a plan beginning with putting a press kit together. First I would reach out to the professor at Penn and the counseling director at Stockton College for reference letters. They both replied immediately and were happy to provide me with one. While I was waiting to receive those I drafted my new resume. This one would be specific only to my speeches, media, volunteer work and education related to my story of date rape as my previous career achievements were irrelevant. I was surprised as to how much I accomplished in 5 years when it was only something I was doing on the side. Next I had to get professional head shots done to be used in the press kit, twitter page and later my website so I booked an appointment with a photographer Steve had used and liked.
Now that all of those parts were moving it was time to get on twitter but before I did that I had to create a name for my company and a mission statement. This wasn't all that hard because since the beginning I talked about what that was in my speech. It was simple and JoAnnSpeaksOut was born. I created my twitter page and was ready to become familiar and start connecting with other people and organizations who shared the same mission as mine of awareness and advocacy. I worked on it every day learning as much as I could and it was starting to pay off slowly.
In the meantime I had to get my information out there so I could start booking speeches. Thankfully research was a key part of many jobs I had in the past and that skill was going to come in very handy. Moving not just to a new area but another coast left me unfamiliar with the many colleges, universities, rape crisis centers and organizations I would need to contact. The good news there was no shortage of them and I took my other business skill for creating spreadsheets and began filling it with names, email addresses and other pertinent information to refer back to later. Then I drafted an introduction and began my email campaign. I was feeling very satisfied and productive, something that had eluded me for a long time in the course of a work day. My research was not only paying off but the information would then lead me into other directions that I didn't even know existed. I was also getting some responses which validated what I was doing was working.
The next big challenge was the website. I knew what I wanted and how I wanted it to look which was a good thing but didn't know how I would get to my end result. First I had to make sure the JoAnnSpeaksOut domain was available for purchase which it was so I snapped it up from GoDaddy and called for advice on website design. The told me my options and what it would cost and since everything else involved with my venture was new to me I figured why not design the website myself using one of their templates of course. I had no creative talent to speak of but what I did have was a vision and ideas and I took that as far as I could. Weeks later and countless phone calls to customer service I launched my website and even received a few compliments.
I am not ashamed to say that I was really proud of myself. Everything I had been doing so far was for the first time but the difference, I wasn't scared or apprehensive nor did I second guess myself. What drove me every day is that I committed myself to helping others and all the hard work I put in every day was for my benefit. I no longer worked myself to exhaustion for someone else's profit. The first few months of JoAnnSpeaksOut I had overcome obstacles and challenges but I finished my day feeling satisfied unlike any other time in my work life. This from someone who NEVER thought she could work from home and for herself. I'm living proof that you can do what you never imagined you could...
Now that all of those parts were moving it was time to get on twitter but before I did that I had to create a name for my company and a mission statement. This wasn't all that hard because since the beginning I talked about what that was in my speech. It was simple and JoAnnSpeaksOut was born. I created my twitter page and was ready to become familiar and start connecting with other people and organizations who shared the same mission as mine of awareness and advocacy. I worked on it every day learning as much as I could and it was starting to pay off slowly.
In the meantime I had to get my information out there so I could start booking speeches. Thankfully research was a key part of many jobs I had in the past and that skill was going to come in very handy. Moving not just to a new area but another coast left me unfamiliar with the many colleges, universities, rape crisis centers and organizations I would need to contact. The good news there was no shortage of them and I took my other business skill for creating spreadsheets and began filling it with names, email addresses and other pertinent information to refer back to later. Then I drafted an introduction and began my email campaign. I was feeling very satisfied and productive, something that had eluded me for a long time in the course of a work day. My research was not only paying off but the information would then lead me into other directions that I didn't even know existed. I was also getting some responses which validated what I was doing was working.
The next big challenge was the website. I knew what I wanted and how I wanted it to look which was a good thing but didn't know how I would get to my end result. First I had to make sure the JoAnnSpeaksOut domain was available for purchase which it was so I snapped it up from GoDaddy and called for advice on website design. The told me my options and what it would cost and since everything else involved with my venture was new to me I figured why not design the website myself using one of their templates of course. I had no creative talent to speak of but what I did have was a vision and ideas and I took that as far as I could. Weeks later and countless phone calls to customer service I launched my website and even received a few compliments.
I am not ashamed to say that I was really proud of myself. Everything I had been doing so far was for the first time but the difference, I wasn't scared or apprehensive nor did I second guess myself. What drove me every day is that I committed myself to helping others and all the hard work I put in every day was for my benefit. I no longer worked myself to exhaustion for someone else's profit. The first few months of JoAnnSpeaksOut I had overcome obstacles and challenges but I finished my day feeling satisfied unlike any other time in my work life. This from someone who NEVER thought she could work from home and for herself. I'm living proof that you can do what you never imagined you could...
Friday, July 4, 2014
Independence Day
With today being July 4th I wanted to talk about what it means to me in relationship to my life specifically our police and criminal justice system and the law. We can all agree that our Founding Fathers set up a template that we have had to amend as society evolves whether it be for good or evil. Many of the oldest rape crisis centers in this country were founded in the early 70's as women began to stand up, speak out and support rape victims. Rape and sexual assault protection laws have come a long way since then and even more so in the past 10-20 years for example the rape shield law which protects the identity (name and image) of a victim from being publicized and her past sexual history from being examined.
In my particular case the attack occurred in Philadelphia, a very large city with a budget for a special unit within the district attorney's office. Many large cities in the US have this unit along with their police departments having dedicated detectives for their special victims units. Unfortunately, the further you go from each major city in this country the less specially trained prosecutors and detectives they have to assist victims of sex crimes. As a result the cases can not be handled as best as they could if it occurred somewhere else.
This brings me to one of the many reasons I do what I do today. That is to speak out against rape and sexual assault and advocate for those victims who did not receive the best representation. The more I speak out the better chance for conversations to be started in places it may not have in the past. Therefore when the next victim walks into a hospital or police station reporting an assault she or he will be examined by a SANE nurse, have an advocate from the local rape crisis center there to hold her or his hand, a detective trained in the proper way to take the victims statement without any judgement and then a district attorneys office that can take the case and prosecute it to the best of his or her ability.
I believe I am on the right path and know this is possible. That's why I do it. I am a proud American and know deep down I live in a country where what I say and do makes a difference.
In my particular case the attack occurred in Philadelphia, a very large city with a budget for a special unit within the district attorney's office. Many large cities in the US have this unit along with their police departments having dedicated detectives for their special victims units. Unfortunately, the further you go from each major city in this country the less specially trained prosecutors and detectives they have to assist victims of sex crimes. As a result the cases can not be handled as best as they could if it occurred somewhere else.
This brings me to one of the many reasons I do what I do today. That is to speak out against rape and sexual assault and advocate for those victims who did not receive the best representation. The more I speak out the better chance for conversations to be started in places it may not have in the past. Therefore when the next victim walks into a hospital or police station reporting an assault she or he will be examined by a SANE nurse, have an advocate from the local rape crisis center there to hold her or his hand, a detective trained in the proper way to take the victims statement without any judgement and then a district attorneys office that can take the case and prosecute it to the best of his or her ability.
I believe I am on the right path and know this is possible. That's why I do it. I am a proud American and know deep down I live in a country where what I say and do makes a difference.
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