Professional Development Ideas for Coalition Staff

The following resources offer free readings and recordings on topics relevant to sexual assault coalition work.

• Visit the Resource Shaing Project website
• Visit the National Sexual Violence Resource Center website.
• Visit the National PREA Resource Center website.
• Learn from the VERA Institute of Justice: End Abuse of People with Disabilities webinar series.
• Visit the Victim Rights Law Center website.
• Learn from End Violence Against Women International online training institute and webinars.
• Visit the National Criminal Justice Training Center website.
• Visit the OVC Training and Technical Assistance Center. Complete an OVC online training.
• Read about disaster, emergency preparedness, and response at VAWNet.
• Learn from Sexual Assault Kit Initiative trainings.
• Visit the AEquitas resource library.
• Learn from past Stalking Resource Center webinars.
• Learn from National Crime Victim Law Institute webinars.  
• Learn from Asian Pacific Institute on Gender Based Violence webinars.
• Visit the National Latin@ Network webinar archive.
• Visit the Just Detention International webinar archive.
• Visit the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs’s webinar archive.
• Browse the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault’s YouTube channel of archived webinars.
• Browse the New York Coalition Against Sexual Assault’s YouTube channel of archived webinars.
• Browse the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault’s YouTube playlist.
• International Association of Forensic Nurses: Visit the International Association of Forensic Nurses’s website.
• Visit the Teaching Tolerance website.
• Learn about violence prevention at Centers for Disease Control, Violence Prevention website.
• Learn from past PreventConnect web conferences. Listen to the PreventConnect podcast. Complete PreventConnect elearning modules.
• Learn from the National Resource Center for Reaching Victims National Strategy Sessions.
• Visit Black Women’s Blueprint’s website.
• Learn about supporting male survivors at the 1in6 website.
• Learn about a somatic approach to healing at Generative Somatics’ website.
• Read the National Queer and Trans Therapist of Color Network’s COVID-19 Guidelines for QTPOC Mental Health Practitioners.

Read relevant books

The books below are previous RSP book club picks.

• Learn more about Sarah Deer’s The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America
• Learn more about Danielle McGuire’s At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance — a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power
• Learn more about Jennifer Patterson’s Queering Sexual Violence — Radical Voices from Within the Anti-Violence Movement
• Learn more about Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge’s Intersectionality — Key Concepts

Things you can do on your own

• Journal or make art to reflect on your experiences as an advocate or coalition staff member. What is going well? What is not going well? What are you learning? Where do you want or need to grow? What inspires you these days? What concerns you? What do you think you could approach differently in your work? How has your work in the sexual assault field/movement change how you relate to other people? How has it influenced your life outside of work?
• Learn or deepen a skill that you can offer for future holistic healing groups.
• Listen to podcasts or audiobooks.
• Update brochures or make new ones specific to different communities or on different topics.
• Update or write new curricula or workshop activities.
• Practice curriculum writing by deconstructing and reconstructing a workshop you’ve attended that you liked or an activity someone else facilitated that you enjoyed.
• Write blog posts (can be done online or off, to post later).
• Record yourself giving your “elevator pitch” about your program and watch/reflect/improve or come up with different pitches for different communities.

Things you can do with others

• Have one-on-one conversations over the phone to get to know allies/partners you work with or want to work with more
• Research leadership development and accountability plans and fill one out for yourself. Talk it over with your supervisor or a trusted mentor.
• Ask someone you admire to mentor you or have phone conversation with you.
• Brainstorm questions that you struggle to answer during community presentations and practice writing/saying different answers. Record them and critique yourself or share with a work buddy to get feedback.