Sunday, May 18, 2025
5/18/2025
IDOH Rape Prevention and Education Program - Project Abstract Sexual violence (SV) is a national public health problem that has severe and long-lasting effects, from which Indiana is not immune. Results from the 2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) showed over 15% percent of Hoosiers having experienced unwanted sexual contact in their lifetime, and this rate is even higher for women in Indiana at 24.1%. Over the past decade in Indiana, there has been an increase in rates of unwanted sexual contact, especially among our child and adolescent population. The Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) team has four strategies to reach the intended outcomes and decrease rates of sexual violence: building infrastructure for sexual violence prevention, creating a state action plan for preventing sexual violence, implementing sexual violence prevention programs, and turning data into action. At the end of the five-year cycle, the IDOH RPE team intends to reach ten short-term goals and seven intermediate goals related to four over-arching strategies for change. Our first strategy is to build infrastructure for sexual violence prevention, which will allow Indiana to increase capacity to implement and evaluate at the community- and societal-level and incorporate health equity program activities among partner organizations. IDOH will also conduct focus groups throughout the state to better understand the experiences and barriers survivors faced in SV prevention and response. Findings from the focus groups and other data collected throughout the first year will be regularly shared with the Sexual Violence Prevention Council (SVPC) and will be on the data dashboard once that has been published. Our second strategy includes developing a state action plan for Indiana. We will primarily facilitate the creation of the state action plan (SAP) by engaging the SVPC for their review throughout the process with multiple opportunities to be more hands on with the development of the SAP. For our third strategy, IDOH will implement SV prevention programs in two ways: working with organizations to implement prevention programming and conducting Safe Bars training. By doing so, we hope to mobilize and engage sexual violence primary prevention efforts based on the needs and wants of the community and provide support for enacting long-term sustainable programs. The focus groups conducted in year one will guide activities implemented in years two through five, with a focus on identifying ways to create protective environments from multiple forms of marginalization and increase economic opportunities. The fourth and final strategy is using data to inform action. IDOH plans to achieve this by publishing a data dashboard and supporting continuous dissemination of findings, creating more data transparency and encouraging partners to contribute to state- and community-level monitoring of trends in sexual violence outcomes. IDOH is fortunate to have effectively used RPE grant funds over the past five years to build capacity for SV primary prevention with partners in various areas of the state. In addition, the funds allowed IDOH to support locally based and nationally recognized technical assistance providers reach key populations that face disproportionate rates of victimization. We have already seen positive short- and intermediate-outcomes of this funding and know that continued funding will allow us the opportunity to grow and expand our work to even more partners and communities. Continued RPE funding is crucial for Indiana to address the increasingly complex intersectional health equity work to decrease rates of victimization and perpetration of SV in Indiana.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).