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Program: Dating Violence

Purpose: Education, Prevention, Public Awareness

Any Pertinent Statistics: As many as one in four dating relationships exhibit some form of abuse

Date/Time: available for booking

Program: Domestic Violence

Purpose: Education, Prevention, Public Awareness

Any Pertinent Statistics: National Crime Statistics indicate that a woman is battered at least every 15 seconds in the U.S. It is the number one cause of injury to women; it is the leading cause of death in women in the workplace. Women are in more danger of being killed or seriously injured by an intimate partner than by a stranger. Over ninety percent of adult victims of DV are women.

Date/Time: available for booking

Program: Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Purpose: Education/prevention

Date/Time: Available for booking

Definition: Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:

1. Submission to such conduct is made either directly or indirectly a term or condition of employment;
2. Submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting the individual or
3. Such conduct unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

Two type of sexual harassment:

1. Quid Pro Quo (Latin for “this for that”) may occur if an employee’s response to a request for a sexual favor is used to make a decision about employment.
2. Hostile Environment may exist if the offensive behavior is based on an individual’s sex, is severe, repeated or widespread; and if a reasonable person of the same sex examined the situation and found the behavior changes the conditions of employment.

Program: Acquaintance Rape

Purpose: Education, Prevention, Public Awareness

Any Pertinent Statistics: By age 18 one in three girls and one in six boys have already been sexually assaulted or had a serious attempt at a sexual assault made on them

Date/Time: available for booking

Definition of Acquaintance Rape: A sexual assault perpetrated by someone known to the victim, often a relative, could be a family friend, a next door neighbor, a trusted individual such as a religious leader or coach, a date, or could be a “brief encounter” such as someone met at a party or bar.

Three out of four sexual assaults in the general population are acquaintance rapes. Nine out of every ten sexual assaults on college campuses are acquaintance rapes.

Program: Sexual Harassment in School

Purpose: Education, Prevention

Any Pertinent Statistics: Need based on AAUW’s study which revealed that 3 out of 4 students have been sexually harassed in school

Date/Time: available for booking

Extra protection is given under the law in school and in the workplace that is not afforded when the harassment occurs elsewhere.

SH is unwanted sexual advances such as: grabbing, pinching, rubbing, body contact of sexual body parts. It is verbal or written comments of a sexual nature such as: references to sexual body parts; breast, buttocks, genitals, or reference to sexual activity or sexual orientation; graffiti, or obscene notes. It is inappropriate gestures such as: grabbing the crotch, “the finger”, lewd tongue movement, pantomime of sexual acts.

Sexual Harassment is gender neutral, girls harass girls and boys, boys harass boys and girls.

Program: College Bound and Safe

Purpose: Education, Prevention

Any Pertinent Statistics: Girls leaving home to attend college and live on campus are statistically facing among the four most dangerous years of their lives in terms of sexual assault. Some estimates are as high as one in four girls being sexually assaulted during those four years, with the freshman year being particularly dangerous. Nine out of ten campus rapes are Acquaintance Rapes.

Date/Time: available for booking, covers four one hour sessions.

Program: Domestic Abuse & Sexual Assault Crisis Center Services

Purpose: to raise awareness of services provided by Domestic Abuse & Sexual Assault Crisis Center

Date/Time: available for booking

Community Education FAQs

What kind of community education programs do you offer?

Domestic Abuse & Sexual Assault Crisis Center offers community education programs on: Domestic Abuse & Sexual Assault Crisis Center services, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment and college safety.

To whom do you offer these programs?

Just about anybody who would like a program, businesses, schools, organizations, clubs, churches or other religiously based groups or any other gatherings.

How much does a program cost?

For the most part one time programs are free of charge.

Who do I contact to schedule a program?

You may call Sheila Garry Avery, the Domestic Abuse & Sexual Assault Crisis Center’s Community Education Director, at our outreach office in Belvidere, at 908-475-8581, to schedule a program.

Probably the most frequently asked questions after explaining our services are questions concerning length of stay in the shelter (initial contract is for 30 days but can be extended and varies greatly with the needs of the client and the availability of space) and where clients go after they leave the shelter (some get retraining orders and are given possession of the home, some move on to new homes, or transitional housing, some return to their batterers).

FREE and CONFIDENTIAL Services offered by the Domestic Abuse & Sexual Assault Crisis Center:

• 24 hour emergency services
• Hotline
• Individual counseling
• Support groups
• Comprehensive shelter program
• Transitional housing
• In house child advocacy
• Outreach program
• Legal advocacy
• Court and hospital accompaniment for domestic violence and sexual assault
• Participation in DVRT and SART programs
• Community education
• Information and referrals
• Professional training