Making the Connection
Building Stronger Relationships Between Sexual Assault Service Providers and Transgender Survivors
(A demonstration project)
Multiple studies have found that transgender individuals have one of the highest recorded rates of sexual violence: over 50% of transgender people are sexual assault survivors. At the same time, transgender survivors seldom access mainstream sexual assault services. Why?
Answering that question and then working to resolve the identified problem(s) and barriers will be the goal of three provider/transgender leader coalitions, utilizing the expertise and organizing support of FORGE, a national transgender organization specializing in sexual violence, funded for this purpose by the U.S. Office for Victims of Crime (OVC). FORGE will help selected communities:
- Identify and recruit appropriate sexual assault provider and transgender participants;
- Assess what barriers may be keeping transgender survivors from accessing services;
- Cross-train on local transgender and sexual violence resources and issues;
- Select and address key barriers;
- Assess success and determine what, if any, additional monitoring, support, or work will be done.
The initial organizing and work plan development and execution will be done over the course of approximately 12 months.
What FORGE will provide. Local communities will be expected to provide professionals’ and leaders’ time as an in-kind donation to the project; communities will not receive funding from FORGE. However, FORGE will provide:
- Specific assessment tools and analysis of those results;
- Training and facilitation for a 1-2 day workshop and initial planning session;
- Assistance with follow-up meetings (teleconference or web-conference), which can include scheduling and facilitating;
- Ongoing access to technical assistance, consultation, resource identification, and problem-solving; and
- Evaluation and assistance in planning ongoing activities, if any.
Interested? Send an email saying you’d like to be notified when the request for proposals is issued to AskFORGE [at] FORGE-forward [dot] org
