Education & Training
Victim Outreach Intervention Center is excited to provide an array of informational programs to your group, school, organization, church or business. To schedule any of the programs listed below, please contact us for more information.
Domestic Violence Programs
Domestic Violence and the Effects on Children
Characteristics and behaviors exhibited by children who have witnessed domestic violence or have been victimized themselves.
Domestic Violence in the Workplace
Information including signs that a co-worker is being abused, how it can affect you and your co-workers, safety planning in your workplace, how to help and stay safe.
Dynamics of Domestic Violence
Fundamental information to assist with understanding domestic violence and its continuance. Included are definitions, types of abuse, myths and facts, explanation of the cycle of violence, why a victim stays in an abusive relationship plus additional educative points.
Elder Abuse
Explores domestic violence experienced by the aging, the effects on the aging population and the additional challenges they may encounter.
Workplace Violence
Discusses risk factors in the workplace, warning signs of a co-worker’s escalating behavior that may lead to violence, ways to respond to a violent incident and prevention strategies.
Sexual Assault Programs
Emergency Contraception
The myths and facts surrounding emergency contraception are examined as well as a detailed explanation of how EC works how it is used and obstacles that may be encountered when requesting EC.
Medical Advocacy
Explains and clarifies the role of the VOICe medical advocate when called to a hospital to provide support to a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault and other victimizations.
Professional Guide to Identifying Sexual Assault in Persons with Developmental Disabilities
Information on why people with developmental disabilities are more vulnerable to sexual assault, physical and behavioral signs to look for, types of disclosures of an assault and how to appropriately handle them.
Sexual Assault: Victim Support from Family and Friends
Subjects discussed are definitions, statistics and facts concerning sexual assault, tactics of a perpetrator, personal risk reduction and safety.
Sexual Assault: Victim Support from Medical Professionals
This is a presentation designed for those in the medical field. Information includes statistics, sexual assault myths and facts, the emotional impact of a sexual assault on a victim, physical signs and symptoms, screening tools, and what you can do as a professional to help.
Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
Explains how to determine if someone (or you) is being sexually harassed, types of sexual harassment, psychological effects, health effects, survival skills and reaching out for support.
Safety Programs
Common Sense Self Defense
Everyday safety tips and suggestions to help stay safe. Included in this interactive presentation is discussion of assertiveness and self empowerment, quick decisions and actions if being assaulted, basic releases from various physical ‘holds’ by a perpetrator to allow an opportunity to flee.
Predator Tactics of Persuasion
Explores the many ways a perpetrator/predator, whether a stranger, acquaintance or a friend, manipulates his victim into trusting him. Also discussed are societal barriers for men/women to overcome in order to help keep safe.
Elementary & Secondary School Programs
Child Assault Prevention (CAP)
The CAP program aims to prevent child assault by training children to recognize and deal with potentially dangerous situations. The classroom workshop combines guided group discussion and a series of role-plays focusing on situations children may frequently face; a child-to-child encounter (the bully); adult stranger-to-child encounter; and an encounter involving an adult the child knows. The discussion helps the children identify what options they have to protect themselves. The strategies focused upon are: self-assertion, peer support, and telling a trusted adult.
Cyber Bullying
This program was designed in response to the expanding interest in the Internet and the need for some simple guidelines for safety that will make traveling the information highway a more rewarding journey. The internet is easily used by children; in fact they may be teaching adults how to navigate websites, utilize e-mail, and use proper terminology. These children, so wise in the ways of the Internet, are still children that need the guidance of caring adults who will help them develop critical thinking skills and good judgment. The program also addresses exploitation on the Internet. Exploitation on the Internet appears in a variety of ways: transfer of explicit material; seduction through attention, affection, kindness, and even gifts; explicit conversation once they’ve established a relationship; face to face contact; and even cyberstalking. Because the Internet is now available to nearly everyone through the school it is also the ideal place to offer this basic safety program.
Ideal Date Debate
The Ideal Date Debate is a highly interactive program dealing with gender expectations in dating relationships. The group is divided up by gender and asked to answer a series of question. The answers are posted for both groups to see, and then the fun begins. The students, with the help of a trained facilitator, are given the opportunity to discuss their thoughts and feelings regarding the presented answers. Through the discussion, the students begin to understand how important communication and respect is to a healthy, safe, and fun dating relationship.
Internet Safety
With teens today, the internet has become a major social outlet. With the rise of instant messaging and social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, teens on the internet are at a much greater risk of falling prey to online predators. The internet safety program is designed to inform students of how much information can be learned about them if they give out any personal information. The program also addresses ways of protecting their identity and staying safe when using social networking sites. The program will also raise awareness of how easily the students can be duped into believing they know who they are communicating with in the online environment. The internet can be a great resource and social outlet as long as it is done safely.
STEPS to Healthy Relationships
Students will learn the STEPS to a healthy relationship which includes Self-definition (a sense of who you are), Trust (listening to the voice inside of you), Equality (maintaining a balance of power and control), Personal Boundaries (understand comfortable and uncomfortable behaviors), and Support (developing a support network of trusted individuals). These STEPS can be used for all forms of relationships that a student may encounter: friends and family, peers and adults, or boyfriends and girlfriends. The STEPS will help students explore who they are, what they want from their relationships, and who to go to if they are having a problem. In the process, the students will look at issues of gender stereotypes and concepts of personal space. Finally, the students will create a resource to refer back to, to remind them of what they learned about themselves through the STEPS program.
Take a Walk in My Shoes
Through small group discussion and classroom presentations the students will explore the concept of empathy. Using different “real life” scenarios, students will use their empathy skills to identify a variety of emotions associated with the scenario. By identifying those emotions the students will learn how to apply the information to avoid or address conflict. The program can be modified and adapted to address any specific situations that may be occurring in the classroom. For example, if the classroom is having an issue with bullying or harassment the small group discussion can address that particular issue. Finally, the students will have an opportunity to think of their own experiences to see how the empathy of other can help improve their own situations.
High School Programs
Dating Violence
The dating violence program is designed to look at violence in intimate relationships. The program goes through the different types of violence that can occur in a relationship and then the students will discuss what the violence looks like in the relationship. Knowing what violence looks like in a relationship is important because when student or people in general think of violence they think of severe cases and easily overlook subtle behaviors that are early warning signs to violent relationships. The program then looks at the cycle of violence so students can understand how violence grows over time and can make it difficult to identify dating violence until it is severe.
Gender Violence
The gender violence program looks at masculinity and femininity and how those two terms are defined. How those two terms are defined guide our interactions with others around us. Those interactions may attempt to push others into stereotypical boxes. The students will discuss how we push people into stereotypical gender roles through bullying, violence, and even sexual harassment. The students will also discuss how media and pop culture influence our definitions of gender roles. Finally, the students will discuss how these stereotypical gender roles may create unhealthy or uncomfortable dating relationships.
Social Self Defense
The Social Self Defense program is designed to address ways of keeping yourself safe in a variety of social situations. Part of keeping yourself safe is to understand the techniques that a potential attacker may use to manipulate and persuade you into trusting them. This program will discuss those techniques so they can be detected when being used. This can help potentially avoid a situation before it becomes dangerous. If the situation becomes physical, the facilitators will demonstrate a variety of easy to do attacks that can be used in an attempt to fend off an attacker. The attacks are based on social settings such as in the hallways or at a party and getting pinned to a wall, strangled, or grabbed in standing positions. All of the techniques and concepts can be transferred to our Rape Self Defense program.
STEPS to Healthy Relationships
Students will learn the STEPS to a healthy relationship which includes Self-definition (a sense of who you are), Trust (listening to the voice inside of you), Equality (maintaining a balance of power and control), Personal Boundaries (understand comfortable and uncomfortable behaviors), and Support (developing a support network of trusted individuals). These STEPS can be used for all forms of relationships that a student may encounter: friends and family, peers and adults, or boyfriends and girlfriends. The STEPS will help students explore who they are, what they want from their relationships, and who to go to if they are having a problem. In the process, the students will look at issues of gender stereotypes and concepts of personal space. Finally, the students will create a resource to refer back to, to remind them of what they learned about themselves through the STEPS program.
Rape Self Defense
Many self-defense programs teach women how to defend themselves using techniques designed for men. This program is specifically for women to learn how to use their strongest weapons, their legs, against their perpetrators weakest targets, their knees, groin, stomach, throat, and face. The program also focuses on controlling the perpetrator’s hands and hips which have the potential of doing the most damage in a rape situation. The Rape Self Defense program will focus specifically on rape situations and escaping from those positions using techniques designed specifically for women.
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