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>> A lot of people
>> are surprised by the statistics that we share and
are, you know, education and outreach.
Sexual violence is a taboo subject that a lot of people
just don't want to talk about. Unfortunately they think that
it is a a private matter
and that it will never affect them or anybody. They love
since sexual violence has to do with sex. People are not
comfortable talking about sex. And I think that we often la
>> domestic violence and sexual violence together. Clearly
there are intersections that someone who is experiencing
domestic violence can also be experiencing sexual violence.
The difference is when we think about sort of the definition of
domestic violence. We think about an intimate partner.
We think about that person having a relationship with
someone and then violence occurs within the context of
that relationship, sexual violence, of course, can occur
in the context of an intimate partner relationship. But it
can also occur. And, you know, outside of that it can occur by
someone who was a stranger and it goes the gamut from sexual
harassment all the way to rape. And so sexual violence, you
know, really when we think about that broad definition.
It's all of those sexually inappropriate behaviors that
that create harm on for victims and create harmful for
communities.
>> Sexual violence and unwanted sexual contact which can
include words or actions against a person's well or
without their consent and consent can be withdrawn at any
point during a sexual activity. So for example, sexual violence
is rape non consensual oral sex kept calling or flashing
forceful watching of pornography and taking or
sharing pictures of a sexual nature without a person's
consent. So domestic violence usually occurs between intimate
partner violence and it includes physical, which is
what most people think about when they hear domestic
violence. But it can also include verbal emotional abuse,
psychological sexual abuse, financial and digital so we
can.
>> But our programs into 3 big categories of service
provision. The first bucket that I would think about is our
direct services and those services are designed
specifically to help individuals families to address
violence and to alleviate violence in homes and in
communities. And so those services consist of a few.
We have a crisis line on services that's open to anyone.
It's open. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
And so our next level of services, advocacy services.
There's access to safety planning will go with someone
for options counseling. We will company someone to call court
if they need that, we will provide service support for
community access to community services information, referral
services. And then we have our hospital company month program
and this is a program where if someone is experiencing
domestic violence or sexual assault and need someone or
want someone to accompany them to the hospital during their
forensic exam. We are in partnership with. I Nova
Fairfax and we will company that victim or that survivor to
the hospital and walk with them through that process. I work
for domestic and sexual out services with the county.
But by being on site, I'm able to accompany patients who are
coming in to receive a forensic exam. And so I'm working
directly with in Fairfax County. I'm working with people
who are warning the services in Fairfax County, but I'm working
on site with the nurses so that I am always, you know, right
there when someone is needed rather than having to call
someone to come all the way in. So because the fact department
is a 24 hour.
>> Office. And because it's, you know, it's responding to
these immediate needs with in that five-day period. A lot of
the folks who are coming in are sometimes coming in late in the
day late at night. I'm trying to make sure that they have
access. And so we may have someone who's coming in because
they went to the emergency room and someone in the emergency
room fly that they might need our services. We might have
someone who called our hotline. And we said, hey, this is an
option for you to go get this exam. And so what I will do is
before after during the exam. I will meet with the patient.
I will talk to them about what their concerns are all answer.
Any questions that they have and just sort of work through
whatever needs to be worked through exams are long. It
takes a couple of hours to get through. And so advocates
really just exist to be there to support them through the
process.
>> So I provide free short term counseling services to
survivors of domestic violence. Sexual violence, teen dating
violence stalking and human trafficking. I also work with
secondary survivors. So parents, siblings, friends,
family members that are impacted by violence
and I run a support group for adult female and female
identifying survivors of sexual violence.
A big common misconception. The general public has about
domestic violence
is in need of the victim and what they're looking for and
services. I think the general public might have this idea
that a domestic violence victim. All they really want
need us to leave that relationship.
We do see a lot of people seeking our support and help
leaving unhealthy situations. But we also see a lot of people
that just want the violence to stop. They want the
relationship to be safe and they want their partner to get
help.
Also risk and danger goes up exponentially right before or
immediately after leaving a violent relationship. So this
misconception that leaving is easy.
4
survivors. I think a common misconception. I encounter a
lot in therapy and we spend a lot of time on tangling.
Is the survivors believing that they are
partially or fully responsible for the trauma that they've
injured when in reality of abuse occurs because the abuse
of person made a series of decisions and they're
responsible for both the abuse and any consequences they have
to then deal with down the road
the way that that we are conditioned by society really
perpetuates sexual violence. And so it's really important
from a prevention perspective that we teach about healthy
relationships that we teach about consent that we teach
about, you know, boundaries around your body and that we do
that as young as we can because I think that if we start to do
that and we do that consistently that we can start
to change society's attitudes around personal boundaries and
what's appropriate and what isn't appropriate in terms of
shows.
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