NASPA 2023 location

About

When we exercise our capacity to remove the barriers that emerge in the aftermath of sexual violence, we are making a commitment to student success. Perhaps more importantly, seeking to prevent violence from occurring in the first place – primary prevention – has the possibility of transforming our communities.  This impact is felt by faculty, staff, students and even those in the communities surrounding our campuses. In addition to myriad laws that require prevention efforts, it is this potential for community impact that compels institutions of higher education to dedicate time to thinking about sexual violence prevention.

As those who make decisions about sexual violence prevention programming, we often have to answer the “why” behind the “what.” The NASPA Strategies Conferences can help provide this context through its content and programming: What trends are we seeing in the field? What is driving the development of new programs? What does the research say about where to invest our institutional resources? It is in the act of answering these questions that practitioners will find the inspiration for their next sexual violence prevention programming efforts.

As part of a larger conference, the NASPA Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Conference will provide participants with the opportunity to engage with colleagues on these and many more important topics. The Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Planning Committee invites attendees to contribute their expertise as they engage in this critical work.

Learn more about the 2023 NASPA Strategies Conferences, including exhibiting and sponsorship opportunities.

2023 Conference Themes and Learning Outcomes

Personal, Professional, and Community Sustainability and Development

• Consider the implications of secondary trauma and explore opportunities to increase professional well-being and prevent burnout 

• Strategize and discuss the establishment and maintenance of personal and professional boundaries

• Build institutional capacity through navigating external funding and/or internal institutional priorities

• Develop cross-campus, local, state, and national relationships to build a network of creative and supportive professionals [advocates, prevention educators, etc.] 

• Identify models of collaborative partnerships with diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to increase effectiveness of prevention, response, and advocacy efforts 

Evidence-informed Policy and Practice

• Identify evidence-informed approaches to sexual violence prevention and response

• Demonstrate strategic use of assessment and data to inform and influence policies, programs, organization, infrastructure, and other higher order change that helps build a culture in which sexual, gender-based, and relationship violence is eliminated

• Discuss best practices in: implementing sustainable, evidence-informed prevention programs; improving campus response to violence and those who have survived acts of violence; and evaluating the impact of these efforts

• Describe strategies for developing or revising comprehensive campus sexual misconduct policies, including how they are impacted by the latest federal and state legislative policy changes

Innovative or Promising Approaches to Prevention and Response

• Identify strategies, programs, and policies which are innovative and whose grounding in foundational theories, models, or frameworks make them promising in their efficacy

• Describe project implementation and program evaluation associated with these initiatives

• Discuss innovative/promising approaches to the prevention of and response to sexual violence in higher education, including discussions of lessons learned, assessment and evaluation, and replicability

• Explore and discuss restorative and transformative justice and community based accountability practices

Transforming Social Narratives

• Examine and interrupt the problematic dominant narratives of sexual, gender-based, and relationship violence [e.g. racism, sexism, heteronormativity, gender identity, ableism, U.S.-centrism], including narratives around those who experience violence; those who perpetrate violence; as well the ways in which those who work to prevent and respond to violence participate in these dominant narratives

• Create and propose new perspectives, approaches, and strategies to honor all identities in sexual, gender-based, and relationship violence work

• Examine societal and institutional systems and structures that contribute to, are complicit in, or perpetuate violence, and identify practices that foster inclusive and equitable efforts to address sexual, gender-based, and relationship violence

Developing or Expanding Campus and Community Partnerships

• Discuss the ways in which a diversity of stakeholders from within and across the campus and the larger community can work collaboratively to address sexual violence and best serve the needs of campus community members

• Describe models of collaboration, case studies from integrated systems, successful partnerships, and efforts to engage all stakeholders in sexual violence prevention and response

• Describe collaboration with local, state, and national organizations to prevent and respond to campus sexual violence

• Identify strategies to expand and strengthen relationships among and between campuses and community service providers, in an effort to augment support for reporting and responding parties and increase communication around and collaboration in prevention and response

2023 NASPA Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Strategies Conference Committee