Prevention
What is Prevention?
Our outreach and prevention team is working to build collaborative relationships with educators and students in Washington County public schools. Sexual violence is persistent in our communities, and we want to show up for our young people who have experienced harm. The Youth Risk Behavior survey results from the state name that 1 in 10 high school students have experienced sexual violence in a dating relationship, and according to The Lifetime Prevalence of Child Sexual Abuse and Sexual Assault Assessed in Late Adolescence we know that 1 in 9 girls and 1 in 53 boys under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault at the hands of an adult. We want to work with the community to decrease that number. Our approach is focused on prevention AND response. We find that when we start with the prevention work of shifting norms through education and community building, people who have experienced harm come forward. All people need support and have information and wisdom to help with the changes needed in our communities.
We see this work as long term and connected to broader anti-violence efforts. To us, prevention is more than stopping bad things from happening, it’s about supporting communities to build the skills and resources necessary to create a life where all people are supported to thrive. At Mosaic, we know that the bridge to a world beyond violence is one of empathy, empowering communities, naming our vision, and building the skills to make those changes happen.
Why Prevention
Prevention is about recognizing the ways sexual violence, and the other forms of oppression its tied to, pervades our lives and culture, and working together to change these norms for the better. In our lives, we are inundated with violent norms in media, language, politics, and news. Violence, and especially sexual violence, is normalized in our culture. In our learning about who we are, messages of violence and domination seep in, impacting who we believe we can be, what is valued, and what we believe is good.
In our outcomes for our communities, we see violence everywhere, from explicit examples of physical and sexual violence, to the everyday violence of living with not enough, living believing somehow folks deserve to be homeless, food insecure, without meaningful work, ill, mentally struggling, and alone.
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We educate, advocate, and build power for a world free of sexual violence. Our work is at all levels to build positive outcomes for our communities. We’re not experts and we don’t have all the solutions ourselves, rather, we support people and communities to realize the solutions they already have, even if they don’t recognize them. Here’s just a few ways this can look:
- We host events to connect individuals to the work of ending violence.
- We support youth to be the change they want to see in the world.
- We build community to respond to harm together and seek transformative justice solutions.
- We educate youth, adults, and everyone in between on positive sexuality, consent, bystander intervention, and so much more.
Our goal is to work with you to determine how Mosaic can best support and supplement your school’s existing efforts to stop sexual violence, and create a learning environment that is safe and affirming for people of all genders. These workshops are just a starting point. We don’t emphasize a menu of prevention services, because we know that prevention is fundamentally about working together to meet the unique needs of your community. Let’s get in touch to figure out what Mosaic can offer to help build a culture of safety, consent, and belonging for people of all genders.
If you’re interested in bringing Mosaic to your organization, send an email to Sultana at sultana@moasic-vt.org.
Learn More about Sexual Violence
- Steps you can take to Prevent Sexual Assault
- Your Role in Preventing Sexual Assault
- Engaging Communities in Sexual Violence Prevention
Healthy Sexuality
- What is Consent
- Talking About Consent and Healthy Relationships at Every Age
- Consent for Kids
- Navigating Consent