Leadership. It can make or break an organization. The SADI project found that while many leadership styles can be impactful, stable and empowering leadership is the most effective. On today’s episode, we are talking with Val Williams, Executive Director at Hope Shores Alliance, about her time with the SADI project and what leadership looks like behind the scenes.

Supporting and advocating for survivors of sexual violence can lead to vicarious or secondary trauma. Throughout the SADI project, all six SADI sites realized staff members were not only experiencing secondary trauma but that their organizations were not adequately supporting them. In this podcast episode, we are chatting with Erica Blackwood, the SADI Specialist at NCCASA. Get ready as we dive deep into this next SADI lesson: sustainable sexual assault services require explicit and agency-wide support.

What is organizational identity? Well, during the course of the SADI project, SADI sites realized they weren’t all that clear on what that meant.

This brings us to our next key SADI lesson: To be truly effective, programs must have a clear organizational identity as a provider of services for survivors of sexual violence. On today’s episode, we are chatting with Taylor Teichman, Youth Development Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness (ECYEH) initiative and a former technical assistance provider for the SADI project.

A basic tenet of the Sexual Assault Demonstration Initiative was that effective sexual assault services could not happen if there is not an understanding and direct response to racism and oppression. Programs that do not endorse and enact an anti-racism/ oppression approach will be limited in their capacity to serve survivors from marginalized groups. Today we are unpacking anti-racism/oppression approaches, barriers, and best practices with members of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center: Louie Marven and Virginia Perez-Ortega.

In this podcast episode, we will dig a little deeper into four specific lessons from the SADI project, introduce individuals who were a part of the SADI project from the very beginning as well as meet new partners who are implementing SADI lessons right now. Join us for this unique behind-the-scenes look at the mistakes, the growth, and the takeaways behind the Sexual Assault Demonstration Initiative.

You can do anything, but not everything. In this episode, we are joined by Nina Jusuf, Co-Founder and Program Director of NAPIESV, National Organization of Asian Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence. We will discuss how survivor-serving organizations must provide impactful, comprehensive, and sustainable support for survivors by expanding their knowledge of sexual violence and healing. We will also share valuable tools to help organizations and individuals commit to their own well-being and care as integral parts of their sustainable support efforts. 

According to the CDC, more than 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact during their lifetimes. Because of this staggering reality, at Elevate|Uplift we strive to make spaces for the ways our own experiences with survivorship and oppression can inform our work. In this episode, we are joined by Santa Molina-Marshall, a holistic licensed clinical social worker and author of RUNNING THROUGH DARKNESS: Memoir of a Spiritual Warrior. We will discuss how secondary trauma impacts us personally and professionally and detail strategies for maintaining healthy boundaries with our trauma while navigating the trauma of others.  

Tribal and Communities of Color carry histories of colonialism, imperialism, slavery, displacement, and other forms of violence. Today I am chatting with Mira Yusef, Executive Director, Monsoon Asians & Pacific Islanders in Solidarity. Join us as we unpack our personal experiences with intergenerational trauma as well as break-down trauma commonalities found in communities of color.

The sexual violence field has historically centered on some survivors and not others. On today’s episode, welcoming back two of our ElevateUplift partners, Cat Fribley, Director of the Resource Sharing Project at IowaCASA, and Nicole Matthews, Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition to discuss how the organizations working at ElevateUplift have “called themselves in” and done the hard work to establish practices and services rooted in anti-racism and anti-oppression frameworks.

In this podcast episode, we will explore the history behind Elevate|Uplift, the SADI project, get to know a little more about the organizations involved with Elevate|Uplift, and how Elevate|Uplift hopes to support organizations, advocates, and survivors in the future.

Guests: the Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition (MIWSAC), the National Organization of Asian Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence (NAPIESV), the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), and the Resource Sharing Project (RSP).