Enhancing Capacity for Sexual Violence Prevention in West Virginia - ABSTRACT While studies substantiate that most sexual assaults (as many as 2/3) go unreported, West Virginia still has a high rate of reported rapes. The estimated lifetime prevalence of sexual violence in West Virginia (WV) estimates that 1 in 6 women and 1 in 21 men are expected to be victims of an attempted or completed sexual assault (Bureau of Justice Statistics October 2021, National Crime Victimization Survey, 2019–2020). West Virginia’s sexual assault coalition, the West Virginia Foundation for Rape Information and Services, will facilitate the implementation of the Rape Prevention and Education coalition project and work in tandem with the WV Department of Health to address sexual victimization and related health disparities among three populations of focus (children/youth, college-age adults, and people with disabilities) who are at higher risk for victimization. The RPE coalition project will include targeted strategies for addressing the needs of LGBTQ and non-binary individuals within those populations who have been identified at an increased risk, as data indicates that social determinants of health disproportionately impact this priority population. This project will prevent sexual violence and promote health equity in West Virginia. Targeted strategies will reduce the risk of sexual victimization and perpetration and address health disparities involving social factors that contribute to sexual violence. Activities will include enhancing multi-sector partnerships to address the root causes of victimization, enhancing a comprehensive five-year State Action Plan to outline activities, implementing strategies, and measuring the outcomes of those strategies. The following short-term outcomes are to be achieved in the first two years of the project: o Increased recipient capacity to implement and evaluate primary prevention of SV at the community- and societal- levels o Increased capacity to promote and incorporate health equity program activities relevant to SV prevention among partner organizations o Increased partner and community awareness of effective primary prevention strategies o Increased partner and community awareness of the disparate burden of SV o Increased collaboration and coordination among partners and between WVDOH, the state sexual assault coalition, representatives from underserved communities, and other sectors to prevent SV o Increased community and societal-level implementation of SV prevention strategies o Increased implementation of prevention strategies among communities and populations with disproportionately high rates of SV o Increased implementation of prevention strategies that seek to prevent SV by addressing social and structural determinants of health o Increased access to data that describes inequities within populations and communities with disproportionately high rates of SV o Increased monitoring and evaluation activities and sharing of data related to SV prevention
