Sexual Violence Prevention Communities First

An Initiative Engaging Communities in Sexual Violence Prevention

The Communities First initiative was created to better understand what prevention work might look like in different communities across Minnesota. No two communities are the same, and a prevention strategy that works well in one community, many not work in all.

The Communities First initiative is supported by the Sexual Violence Prevention Program. The Sexual Violence Prevention Program prioritizes health equity and recognizes a need to understand more about sexual violence prevention in diverse communities.

Key takeaways from Communities First:

• Sexual violence prevention strategies must take into consideration the specific contexts of each community.
• Funding often limits prevention work. More flexible funding that allows for creativity in preventing sexual violence is needed.
• Qualitative sexual violence data is as important to quantitative data, yet disaggregation of demographic data is needed to more accurately show disparities.

Cohort 1 of Communities First was a collaboration between the Sexual Violence Prevention Program and these five agencies:

• Casa de Esperanza
• Hmong American Partnership
• Minnesota Men and Masculine Folks Network
• OutFront Minnesota
• Women of Nations

View the report: Communities First Cohort 1: A Project Engaging Communities in Sexual Violence Prevention (PDF).

Cohort 2 of Communities First was a collaboration between the Sexual Violence Prevention Program and these five agencies:

• Asian Women United
• DREAM Technical Academy
• Liberty Community Church
• Upstream Arts
• Voices of East African Women