After nearly two years of engaging communities and other groups in public forums, focus groups, interviews, and surveys, the Indiana State Department of Health hosted a statewide summit at the Indianapolis Central Library on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009 to release its first sexual violence primary prevention plan.
Deanna Dewberry, WISH-TV anchor, emceed the event. The summit, Indiana's Commitment to Primary Prevention: A State Free of Sexual Violence, featured keynote speaker Dr. Corrine Graffunder, the Associate Director for Program Development and Implementation for the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other speakers were Abby Kelly-Smith with the Indiana State Department of Health, who is the chair of the Sexual Violence Primary Prevention Council, and PeopleWork Associates, LLC, who assisted with the qualitative data gathering process for the development of the state plan.
Approximately 100 people from a variety of disciplines-government, health care, public health, community service providers, youth and family-serving organizations, faith communities, and concerned citizens attended to learn about Indiana's prevention efforts and how they could become involved.
Graffunder praised the involvement of diverse communities in the plan. "When working to prevent sexual violence, communities have to be engaged. Successful solutions are not developed for the community-they come out of the community and happen through community involvement and investment."
The plan provides key recommendations and strategic priorities for the state regarding sexual violence prevention. The plan includes six different goals with multiple outcomes to be achieved in the next five years:
- Facilitating stakeholder awareness of and participation in the implementation of the plan;
- Building and strengthening capacity to prevent sexual violence in Indiana;
- Supporting communities in using evidence-informed strategies and programs for sexual violence prevention through technical assistance;
- Enhancing social norms that promote sexual violence primary prevention;
- Ensuring the inclusion of priority populations in state and local sexual violence primary prevention efforts, and
- Enhancing sexual violence data collection, analysis, and sharing.
Kelly-Smith stressed the importance of diverse stakeholders taking action to prevent sexual violence.
"Because people's behaviors are influenced by their communities, their families, and the systems within which they live and work, we must target all these settings with our efforts to prevent sexual violence," said Kelly-Smith.
For more information, visit www.in.gov/isdh/23820.htm
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