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Prevention Program

The Prevention Program was established in 2005 and is funded with a Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) grant that is administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Oregon Public Health Division.

The Prevention Program works to eliminate the root causes of sexual violence in order to stop sexual violence before it occurs. This is accomplished by:

1. engaging in prevention activities at the state-level, and
2. providing funding to programs engaging in prevention activities at the community-level.

Prevention Program Theory Model

State-Level Activities

State-level activities include:

• Development of information, resources and training related to sexual violence prevention.
• Technical assistance and support to local communities who are interested in engaging in prevention efforts.
• A state-wide prevention initiative focusing on addressing sexual violence against individuals with developmental disabilities.
• Collaboration with the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence to develop information and resources for Sexual Assault Awareness Month which occurs annually in April.

Focus on Primary Prevention¹

Primary prevention strategies focus on changing the underlying conditions that allow sexual violence to occur. Primary prevention efforts:

• are comprehensive (focused at multiple levels of the ecological model),
• are evidence-based (informed by the best available research/expertise and by providing culturally competent strategies within each community),
• involve leadership from diverse communities,
• incorporate an understanding that without social justice there will always be violence (which includes the elimination of societal inequities), and
• work to create sustainable and lasting change.

An Ecological Approach

While sexual violence is committed by individuals, preventing that behavior requires taking into account multiple domains of influence - family, peers, community, institutions, media, broader society - and their relative impacts on individuals and their behavior.

An ecological approach recognizes that the individual is strongly influenced by domains, systems and norms, and that influencing each of these will reduce violence. It also recognizes that no one group or institution can end sexual violence alone and that change needs to take place across multiple domains to truly impact the problem.

Using a comprehensive model allows individuals and groups to identify where they can participate in prevention efforts given their strengths, resources, and experience.

Preventing sexual violence requires the recognition that conditions within our society and communities perpetuate this type of violence. The beliefs we share, the gender roles we reinforce, and the myths we validate all contribute to a climate in which sexual violence is permitted and condoned.

Challenging the systems, norms and beliefs that enable people to wield power and control over others is among the most promising of approaches to prevent sexual violence before it occurs. Efforts of this nature foster a culture in which everyone takes action to reduce the factors that contribute to sexual violence.

Primary Prevention Strategies

Some examples of primary prevention strategies include (but are not limited to) efforts which:

• seek to change knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and norms about the acceptability of sexual violence and which inhibit the occurrence of sexual violence;
• enhance protective factors and promote healthy and safe attitudes and beliefs about sexuality;
• engage youth and strengthen their developmental assets, particularly individuals who show risk factors for becoming perpetrators;
• empower those who witness (bystanders) attitudes and behaviors that perpetuate sexual violence to speak out or intervene;
• promote the status of women and girls and focus on the issue of male violence; and
• address the root causes of violence in our society.

¹ Adapted from Recommendations to Prevent Sexual Violence in Oregon: A Plan of Action

For requests or inquiries, please contact Brie Akins, Prevention Program Coordinator, via email or phone, 541-284-8275 x 17.