PLAYLeave No Child Sexual Abuse Survivor Behind
We will train BIPOC LGBTQI+ child sexual abuse survivors working within direct service and advocacy nonprofits in LA County to ensure their organizations begin to address the endemic rates of child sexual abuse survivorship among their clients and community members. To date, Mirror Memoirs is one of the only organizations in the US led by BIPOC LGBTQI+ survivors that is training organizations to name the connections between child sexual abuse and other forms of systemic and historical violence, and to take action to address this violence.
What is the primary issue area that your application will impact?
Community Safety
In which areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?
County of Los Angeles
In what stage of innovation is this project, program, or initiative?
Expand existing project, program, or initiative
What is your understanding of the issue that you are seeking to address?
In the US, at least 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys are raped or sexually assaulted by age 18. And, a 2011 study from the American Journal of Public Health found LGBTQI+ people are 3.8 times likelier to experience child sexual assault (CSA). Being a survivor comes with lifelong challenges, including but not limited to mental and chronic illness, poverty, and increased criminalization. COVID-19 exacerbated the vulnerability of BIPOC LGBTQI+ CSA survivors, due to underemployment, precarious housing, insufficient healthcare, lack of family support, and threats of hate violence - especially as most states have proposed legislation targeting LGBTQ, and especially transgender, people. As CA has named itself a sanctuary for transgender people, LA County must care for the survivors within this community.
Describe the project, program, or initiative this grant will support to address the issue.
We will train 20 nonprofit leaders in LA County who are both Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, and/or Intersex (LGBTQI+) on: the scope of CSA, evidence-based practices and solutions, and how to foster a community of peer support while addressing this violence. We will run two concurrent cohorts: one of 10 LGBTQI+ Black and Native survivors, and one of 10 LGBTQI+ survivors of color (separating folks this way due to requests from our own membership base over the years). We will bring both cohorts together for the kick off and closing events. This program would be the first of its kind in LA County and perhaps in the US. The first three months will be used to design and implement the application and outreach process. Over the six month program period, the cohorts would attend a series of workshops on the disproportionate effect of CSA on the LGBTQI community, design and test innovations addressing survivorship at their staff, member and client levels, and learn to educate their public community about the scope of the issue. Each trainee will also receive coaching and technical assistance to support the design of a small pilot (an event or training) they will implement during the program, culminating in a presentation showcase. The final three months of the grant period will entail evaluation and dissemination of learnings.
Describe how Los Angeles County will be different if your work is successful.
Mirror Memoirs expects this initiative to increase the capacity of LA County organizations to address CSA survivorship among their staff, members and clients, creating a stronger ecosystem of organizations addressing the needs of some of the most vulnerable Angelenos: BIPOC LGBTQI+ survivors. Our long-term goal is to increase the capacity of all social justice and direct service organizations to both address CSA survivorship among staff and clients and prevent this violence from occurring. We envision this work beginning in Los Angeles County, where we are headquartered, but scaling over time throughout California (and eventually nationwide).
What evidence do you have that this project, program, or initiative is or will be successful, and how will you define and measure success?
All of Mirror Memoirs' programming is designed by our staff, Board and Core Members, 100% of whom are from our membership base and have extensive experience as community organizers, educators, public health experts, policy advocates, nonprofit leaders and academic and community-based researchers. We piloted our Training Institute for BIPOC LGBTQI survivors in 2019, with great success (as measured by post-cohort surveys tracking self-reported data on feeling part of a community of belonging, feeling autonomy and skill around having tools and support for ongoing healing and for organizing to end the ongoing violence of child sexual abuse, and on trainees' post-cohort opportunities to get paid to engage in related work).
Approximately how many people will be impacted by this project, program, or initiative?
Direct Impact: 20
Indirect Impact: 2,000
Describe the role of collaborating organizations on this project.
While this is not a collaborative proposal, we will recruit the 20 Training Institute cohort members from our existing network of partner organizations throughout LA County. Our members include leaders of several BIPOC LGBTQI+ serving organizations, including but not limited to: TransLatin@ Coalition, APAIT, Gender Justice LA, Trans Wellness Center, Unique Woman's Coalition, APAIT, TG/Enby Project, LA Spoonie Collective, Long Beach LGBTQ Center, LA LGBT Center Trans Economic Empowerment Project and the Trevor Project. Our office is also located in the Connie Norman Transgender Empowerment Center. Moreover, our work with the CA Transgender Policy Alliance has deepened our relationships with our coalition partners, including a network of over 20 organizations throughout Southern California.