CALCASA and the Partnership Host Legislative Briefing on the Promise and Impact of Sexual and Domestic Violence Prevention in California

February 27, 2019 |
Valor

On February 12, 2019, CALCASA and the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence hosted an informational briefing at the State Capitol on the promise and impact of domestic violence and sexual violence prevention in California. Recognizing Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention, “Orange Day at the Capitol” featured CALCASA’s Public Policy Associate John L. Finley and the Partnership’s Policy Manager Krista Niemcyzk serving as co-moderators for a series of engaging panel on youth-led, community-level and statewide prevention efforts, and the need for California to commit to a sustained and significant investment in prevention.
One of the panels featured CALCASA’s Director of Prevention David Lee, who spoke about the high cost of sexual violence in California (referring to CALCASA’s 2018 report The Cost and Consequences of Sexual Violence in California) and the extraordinary impacts of prevention work on reducing violence throughout the state.  Importantly, CALCASA noted that there are over 10,000 public schools in the State of California, and funded prevention programs are only reaching a small handful of those.  Additionally, Richard Thomason of the Blue Shield of California Foundation highlighted the necessity of philanthropy leading the movement towards investing in prevention, and how to best support the efforts that are already taking place in communities to prevent sexual violence and relationship abuse.
This briefing clearly asserted to a packed audience at the California State Capitol that not only is prevention possible, but prevention is necessary, and #PreventionWorks.  We are excited to continue the conversation by fiercely advocating for a $50 million ongoing investment in prevention from the California state budget.