Join us this Sexual Assault Awareness Month and all year long for sexual violence awareness and prevention! Scenarios shares the stories of youth: this month we share the stories of those affected by all forms of sexual violence with the goal to build a generation of young people who have the tools and support to prevent non-consensual experiences.
Ending sexual violence requires more than one approach. We believe in teaching young people to examine the ways in which media and culture reinforce violence, abuse, racism, and sexism, and encourage teens to recognize those messages to replace them with their own. Through this lens, young people are empowered to self-advocate and support their peers.
Sexual violence is an abuse of power. Power exists in a variety of forms, and often it is power over others that leads to oppression and violence. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) defines sexual violence as ‘any type of unwanted sexual act’. Indiscriminate of age, gender, sexual orientation, race, or class; sexual violence can happen to anyone. This may include rape, sexual assault, unwanted sexual contact/touching, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and other ‘words or actions of a sexual nature against a person’s will and without their consent.’ We all play a part in preventing sexual violence and being in solidarity with survivors – here’s how:
PREVENTION
Awareness is at the core of prevention: from forging conversations, challenging victim-blaming, believing survivors, and providing resources to support survivors and combat rape culture. At Scenarios we want to help you do this work! Here are a few ways we are supporting you on the path toward prevention of sexual assault and rape 
through awareness:
Watch and share our films, written by teens and directed by Hollywood filmmakers, dealing with themes of sexual assault and consent for FREE for the month of April: http://bit.ly/saamfilms
Films include
Check out our Sexual Violence Prevention and Support Resources: https://scenariosusa.org/for-teens/resources-support/
Share: Click to Tweet ‘We can #endsexualviolence: Watch @scenariosusa’s free films bit.ly/saamfilms + free lesson plans bit.ly/learningconsent for #saam2016’ or create your own message to end sexual violence using #saam2016 & tag us @scenariosusa.
CONSENT
By focusing on consent, “Direct words, behaviors, actions that show a voluntary agreement to engage with others..without coercion, manipulation, or debilitation by drugs or alcohol,” we emphasize respectful communication in creating healthy relationships. Through this practice, we can as individuals and a society, begin or continue to be active in acts of mutual consent everyday.
- Get our Consent lesson plan from our Love & Solidarity Curriculum FREE: http://bit.ly/learningconsent
- The lesson includes resources and glossary terms.
HEALING
Survivors of sexual assault require different kinds of healing; as different as the people they are and the trauma they’ve endured. When we acknowledge “asking for help as a gift we give people who care for us” we break through barriers of silence and fear. When we also address historical trauma and community assets, we build a greater picture of how to ask for help and truly heal without judgement, further damage, or shame, for the multitude of identities of survivors and their particular needs.
- Get our Asking for Help & Healing lesson plan from our Love & Solidarity Curriculum FREE: http://bit.ly/helpandhealing
- The lesson includes resources and glossary terms.
LOVE & SOLIDARITY
Our Consent and Asking for Help & Healing lesson plans are part of a larger curriculum which was built on the expertise of young people addressing how issues of sexual health and social justice affect their lives. The social emotional learning (SEL) and project based lessons get teens thinking about who they are and who they want to be.
- Get our curriculum with lesson plans on love, healthy relationships, silence, sexual orientation, gender, power, and more here.
Read some of our past blog posts & watch out for more!
- #FreeKesha: Standing Against Rape Culture and Abuse of Power by Brianna Garrett
- Teaching to Help and Heal: Discussing Holtzclaw and Trauma by Bianca Laureano
- Exonerating Cosby is Not Pro-Black-Standing Against Rape Culture Is by Brianna Garrett
- No, Drake’s Sexual Violation Isn’t Funny by Andrea Plaid & Stephanie Gilmore
- ELLE Magazine Rape Story Misses the Mark, Entirely by Jess Zimmerman
ORGS TO FOLLOW:
ScenariosUSA is a nonprofit that uses film and writing to amplify youth voices on social justice issues.
Learn more here.
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