New Jersey, through DOW, was one of six states selected to lead a national effort to shift the focus of the federal Rape Prevention & Education (RPE) grant funds from awareness-raising activities that reduce victimization to comprehensive primary prevention strategies that prevent perpetration.
This program is known as Empower - Enhancing and Making Programs and Outcomes Work to End Rape.
Key Players:
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The Center for Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and Colorado, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Carolina, North Dakota
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NJ State Capacity Building Team (The Steering Committee)
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NJ State Prevention Team (Prevention and Public Education Committee of the Governor’s Advisory Council Against Sexual Violence)
The goal of EMPOWER I was to build New Jersey’s capacity to conduct comprehensive planning, implementation and evaluation of sexual violence prevention efforts. It was the first time there was a concerted effort to look at ways to end sexual violence perpetration before it began rather than to solely focus on interventions for victimization.
The outcome was the creation of a NJ Sexual Violence Primary Prevention Plan.
While continuing to build New Jersey's capacity to prevent sexual violence, EMPOWER II's activities focused on the following tasks:
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Implementation of sexual violence prevention system capacity goals and objectives identified in the Sexual Violence Primary Prevention Plan
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Implementation of State Plan prevention strategies by RPE funded sexual violence programs.
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Development of an Evaluation Plan and process and evaluation tools
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Capacity building of the state partners and local RPE funded Sexual Violence Programs to collect and utilize evaluation data
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Development of a sustainability plan
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Support for evaluation capacity development of non-EMPOWER RPE states grantees by sharing lessons learned, processes and tools
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Prevention Strategy Process and Outcomes Evaluation Tools
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Increased capacity of Sexual Violence Programs (SVP’s)
