Reach Counseling - Changing Lives

Imagine.....
Our community without sexual violence.

We can.

Since the mid 1970's Reach Counseling Services (RCS) has provided strong community focused services to meet the changing needs of the Fox Valley. Over the decades, we have engaged in prevention education with children, parents, educators, counselors and professionals from many disciplines. During these years the predominant focus of prevention education services has been the children; teaching young children safety rules, rights and reporting. In recent years, our education with older children has become more directly focused on dating violence, sexual harassment, coercion, boundaries and sexual assault. Teaching children to take responsibility for their behaviors and to question the status quo are significant pieces to creating a safer community, but they are not enough.

In 2001, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) identified child sexual abuse as the "Epidemic of the 21st century." In response to this revelation, the CDC began development of a model for change that involves a significant shift in the way we all view approaches to sexual violence. Primary Prevention is a new direction in prevention education work that postulates intervention must take place before sexual violence has occurred to prevent the initial victimization or perpetration.

As a sexual assault service provider and a mental health clinic, Reach has worked to heal the immediate and long term wounds of those affected by sexual violence. We have taught children what to do if someone touches them inappropriately and we have taught parents and educators how to respond. These are valuable and necessary tools to ending sexual violence but they are no longer enough.

To prevent sexual violence, we must understand what circumstances and factors influence its occurrence and address those causes, as well.

The Primary approach shifts the focus of prevention onto the influences that are causing the epidemic of sexual violence. Four distinct and inter-related levels of influence are identified; individual influences, relational influences, community influences and societal influences. Intervention takes place at each of these levels, forming a comprehensive public health approach that addresses individual risk factors, norms, beliefs, and the social and economic systems that support the conditions allowing sexual violence to occur.

Primary Prevention is a Paradigm Shift

This year, Reach Counseling Services is beginning a journey toward ending sexual violence. We know these are the first small steps of a long journey....a journey we cannot complete without community partners, supporters and friends. Embarking on a community-wide education campaign directed toward adults-focusing on the power we all have to implement this change--is an extension of Reach Counseling's mission and vision for a safer, healthier community for ourselves and our children.

Come imagine with us a community free of sexual violence...a community that is safe for every child, adolescent and adult. Each one of us can create greater awareness and learn simple tools to use in our everyday lives that will make a difference. Please help us bring this dream to reality.

Here are 6 ways you can begin to create community awareness:

1. Host a small gathering of friends or neighbors to participate in a Reach presentation in your home.
2. Arrange to have Reach conduct an information session with your employees, church, civic or professional group.
3. Sign up to receive our newsletter, Imagine campaign updates, and education materials.
4. Attend a short workshop to learn ways you can identify and prevent sexual violence in the lives of people you know and love.
5. Participate in a focus group to identify promising strategies that increase community involvement in the prevention of sexual violence.
6. Check this website monthly for updates and information to help you understand Primary Prevention and ways you can participate in lasting change.

Let that change begin with ME.

Contact us at (920) 722-8150