April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (known as SAAM). If your practice is focused on working with victims or offenders of sexual assault, this is a campaign that you should take advantage of.
Check out this YouTube video on the SAAM campaign.
Looking for ideas about how to incorporate this into your own marketing this month? Consider some of these possibilities . . . .
- If you are active on social media, check out these great ideas.
- Organize a “Cup of Prevention” with books stores, coffee shops, and small cafes. Asking that business owners make a small donation to a local prevention effort for each cup of coffee sold.
- Participate in a Slutwalk Protest like this one in San Antonio. Let others know that you oppose blaming the victim.
- Create a letter-writing campaign with others to address national, state, and local leaders about governmental policies related to sexual violence and the way they impact your community’s quality of life.
- Start a restroom campaign by placing signs / posters on the back of bathroom stalls. You can download and use this one, this one, and this one.
- Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. (Here’s a template to help you get started.)
- And, finally, collaborate on a White Ribbon Campaign to engage men and boys in the work against gender-based violence. [Updated 12-28-19]
If you have other marketing ideas using the Sexual Assault Awareness Campaign, I hope you will share them with us right here!
Thanks Tamara for posting this. I was just thinking the other day about meeting you last year and wondering when you might be in town again :o).
Hi, Jill! I’ve been thinking about you, too. I met some fabulous folks from Georgia when I was at the American Counseling Association. Waiting to be invited back there to present as a keynote speaker this Fall. Will definitely let you know when I’m back in the area!
Tamara I had a great opportunity to talk to some graduate play therapy students about writing and blogging at Mercer University in Atlanta. I showed them your blog, they were really pumped about marketing and how they should start blogging now!! 🙂
Oh, Jill! So glad you are able and willing to do public speaking and mentoring with therapists in training! That serves our profession and it serves your private practice, too! Thank you thank you for sharing your enthusiasm for my work, too! That’s so appreciated. I’m looking for ways to get back to Georgia in 2012 so perhaps Mercer University or another college there will bring me back in to do some work with their students!
Tamara,
This is awesome, thank you so much for posting all these great resources and ideas!!
Natalie
Hi, Natalie! It’s great to hear from one of my readers in Montana . . . and an art therapist, to boot! Thanks so much for dropping in and taking time to let me know that I’m providing resources that are useful to you. I hope you’ll drop back in often to chat and let us know how our online community here can support you on your journey!
And, if you are ever in the area, I hope you’ll touch base. Perhaps we can share a bite to eat together and compare notes on growing our private practices! (By the way – I’m dropping you an email back channel, too.)
Hi Tamara,
Thanks for posting these amazing resources! Helping survivors of sexual trauma heal is actually one of my niches here in San Diego. I am a CALEMA certified Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Advocate/Counselor. I especially love the handout you linked to for using social media to pump up the SAAM campaign. You also inspired me to write about SAAM on my own blog (I have posted about DVAM in the past too) and I mentioned your post. Great stuff, as usual!
Happy posting!
Kourtney
P.S. I am adding your blog to my links page, because I just can’t seem to get enough of your great advice and I know my colleague readers will be interested in connecting with you, as well.
Kourtney, so glad to help and thank you for linking to me, too! I just dashed over to check out your post and blog. How lovely to be able to support each other! Thanks so much!
Hey, what is CALEMA?
Sexual assault (or any victimization) can leave scars that last for long periods of time. When it happens to those who are older, they have the opportunity to talk about it. However, it frequently happens to those who cannot talk or have learned language (under 3 years old). This makes dealing with it much more difficult. I have the unique and blessed opportunity to work with juveniles who have sexually offended (from age 10 to 18). The effects of victimization can be dramatic and the cause of offending behavior may not even be from sexual victimization. Our residential program deals with the offending behavior but also with the cause and we have developed an extensive victimization component to help resolve those past issues. We work to teach these boys and young men how to interact with others in dating relationships with respect and care. Our local community child assessment center has developed a program to teach elementary students about sexual assault and unhealthy relationships. It is important to remember that sexually assaultive behavior is not gender specific and can cross social-economic lines. While it is impossible to make all of our program available, I am willing to help others learn about sexual offending behavior and same ways to appropriately address it.
On a personal note, I have taught my daughter extensively about sexual and unhealthy behavior so when she experiences classmates who have problems, she can inform her teach or her parents about such concerns and they can be addressed.
Bryan! Welcome back! I haven’t seen your voice here in forever!
I so appreciate your take on working with offenders, Bryan. It speaks volumes to me about the depth of compassion and knowledge that you hold about these clients. I always marvel at those who claim to work with childhood sexual abuse but can find compassion only those who fit their own picture of “victim.”
As we continue to learn about the many consequences of sexual trauma, our understanding of those consequences continue to morph. I remember early on in my career thinking very rigidly about “those” people – those with throw away diagnoses like schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder, those who were identified as sexual offenders, etc.
I suppose when we are new in our fields, the amount of knowledge that we are expected to grasp is overwhelming and that it is natural to want to cling to very clear, black and white understandings about who we are working with and what we “should” do. However, the longer I’ve been in the field (over 20 years now), the less clear some of those stances have become.
There’s very little room in my brain now for anything but gray. Perhaps you got there long before me. In any case, I appreciate the respect and care with which you refer to your clients . . . and the responsibility you have taken to teach and protect your daughter by empowering her to make a choice and make a difference.
Thanks so much for dropping in today! It’s always good to hear from you!
As I get more experience, I do see more shades of grey. I remember telling classmates long ago and every the students I have the opportunity to speak to now that we are not that different from our clients. We are only a moment or a small decision away from being where they are at.
Juveniles who have offended (no sexual offenders) are not meant to be thrown away. They are extremely worthy. This was a topic of conversation after a thought provoking movie today. All still struggle with this self-worth (even after many months, sometimes years of treatment).
I look forward to more thought provoking ideas.
Thanks, Brian for sharing a piece of your journey. I know as an inexperienced therapist I had very idealistic and very black and white ideas about who my mentors were, who my professors were, and who therapists, in general, were. I never heard them discuss their mistakes or their real challenges in the field and there were a boatload of ”taboo topics” that in hindsight we steered clear of. I’m sure your students as well as your clients benefit from your seasoned shades of grey.
I so appreciate authenticity of your voice here at Private Practice from the Inside Out!