2010 National Sexual Assault Conference in Los Angeles:
I Went, I Saw, Got Renewed, And Had A New Vision.
In September 2010, California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA) held the 2010 National Sexual Assault Conference (NSAC) in Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles. The Conference had three sections and a plenary discussion each day. The plenary session was compulsory for all participants, but you have a choice of workshop session spread on the eight thematic areas. You had to choose the one to attend depending on your inclinations. I tried as much as possible to spread out my attendance between the eight areas, but I still missed out on Legal Advocacy and Film/Media Festival. The consolation was that overviews of the two were presented at the plenary sessions.
The sessions I attended were:
- Developing & implementing a personal Safety Curriculum for Children with Developmental Disabilities;
- Using Freire’s Work to Develop Social Justice Centred Prevention Efforts;
- Building Sexual Assault Advocacy Key Competencies;
- Participatory Assessment: Mobilizing Communities to Prevent DV & S.A. (Close to Home);
- Transforming Communities to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation;
- Leadership in Changing Times;
- Adapting Gender-Based Violence Programs to Gang Affiliated Youth Populations;
- Celebrating Differences: Why Culturally Relevant and Community Specific Strategies are Our Best Hope for Social Change;
- Sexual Harassment & Assault in the workplace: Getting Money for Victims and
- Towards S.V. 2.0: Using Web 2.0 Tools to address Emerging Issues in Sexualized Violence.
I became an expert on these ten topics, and I want to share some of my knowledge here. First, I was on the red Carpet of CALCASA, and the photograph is published on CALCASA’s facebook as presented here.
Red Carpet served as a side attraction to the busy and tight schedule of the Conference.
The First Topic:
Developing & Implementing a personal Safety Curriculum for Children
with Developmental Disabilities
God created all humankinds, but some children are born with developmental disabilities. These disabilities pose significant challenges to parents and guardians. We must learn how to deal with these challenges, especially in developing and implementing a personal safety curriculum. The workshop on this topic was coordinated by two experts, namely: Mary Worthington, M. Ed, and Mary Richter, M. Ed, at the CALCASA Conference. Many people have heard about Autism but do not know anything about it. Most children with developmental disabilities have Autism.
I will continue the Memory Lane tomorrow.
