Training Institute
NJCASA’s Training Institute is informed by national trends in the prevention of and response to sexual violence, as well as strengths and needs of professionals in New Jersey. We provide in-person and web-based trainings to Sexual Violence Programs and allied professionals committed to creating safer communities for all. NJCASA strives to provide free and accessible trainings, as well as bring low-cost on-demand training to professionals throughout the state.
Who We Work With
The Training Institute serves members from local sexual violence centers, allied professionals in public and mental health, law enforcement, preventionists, and the larger public. Our trainings bring communities a better understanding of the dynamics of sexual assault, which results in improved response to survivors and increased accountability to perpetrators.
Topics We Cover
NJCASA trains on a wide variety of sexual violence issues, including Introduction to Sexual Violence, Cultural Humility, Primary Prevention, Law Enforcement Response, Special Populations, and more. Join NJCASA at one of our upcoming training events or request a customized training for your organization or institution.
Upcoming Trainings
Immigration Relief for Survivors of Sexual Assault
June 29, 2017 | 1:00 p.m. EDT
Format: Webinar
Facilitator: Sonia S. Figueroa, Attorney
Immigrant survivors often face a variety of barriers when reporting or seeking support, including uncertainty about their rights as an immigrant if they do come forward. This webinar will provide an overview of immigration relief available to immigrants that are victims of sexual violence. Advocates will learn about relief for undocumented survivors (such as available visas), options for permanent and conditional residents married to abusers, and options for undocumented parents of children that are victims of sexual violence.
About the facilitator: Ms. Figueroa is an attorney based in Los Angeles, CA. Born of immigrant parents, she left the United States to live in Korea for almost ten years, during which time she learned about some of the difficulties in being an immigrant. As a Veteran of the US Armed Forces and a former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) adjudications officer, she is familiar with the bureaucracy of the federal government and strives to ensure that all of her clients receive the individualized care that they deserve. Her focus is immigration, primarily involving family applications, removal defense asylum, and T/U/VAWA petitions in particular. Active in her community, Ms. Figueroa has been awarded the Public Service Award by the Southern California Korean American Bar Association and the Pro Bono Guardian award by the American Immigration Lawyer’s Association.
Serving Incarcerated Survivors #3: Best Practices
July 11, 2017 | 11:00 a.m. (EDT)
Format: Webinar
Facilitator: Jyoti Venketraman, Special Initiatives Manager of NJCASA
This webinar is the third in a webinar-based series on serving incarcerated survivors. With increased focus on the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), training advocates on intersections of sexual violence within detention centers will help support advocacy for this population. The presentation features three New Jersey programs and their experiences working with incarcerated survivors and detention centers.
Strengthening Core Services: Serving Survivors who are Asian Pacific Islander
September 7th, 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. & September 8th from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. | In-person training (two days)
Facilitators: Mira Yusef, Executive Director, Monsoon United Asian Women of Iowa and Nina Jusuf, Program Director, NAPIESV
New Jersey is one of the most diverse states in the nation. Per the 2015 American Community Survey, approximately 9% of our population is Asian and 0.1% of our population is Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander. There is tremendous diversity within Asian Pacific Islander (API) communities and it’s important to better understand how we can design our services to be inclusive and accessible to API communities in our state.
This two-day in-person training, facilitated by the National Organization of Asian Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence (NAPIESV), will focus on enhancing sexual assault services for Asian Pacific Islander communities in New Jersey. Day 1 will focus on foundational concepts, dynamics of sexual violence in API communities, and how individual and historical trauma plays out in API communities. Day 2 will focus on providing culturally specific advocacy, crisis intervention, and healing services for API communities.
About the facilitators: Mira Yusef is the executive director of Monsoon United Asian Women of Iowa, an organization serving victims/survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in Asian and Pacific Islander communities in Iowa. She is also one of the founders and a member of the National Organization of Asian Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence (NAPIESV). In addition, she serves on the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) National Advisory Council. Mira has a Master’s in Social Work, with specialization in Community Organizing, and a Master of Arts in Southeast Asian Studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Mira was a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, 2004-2005, to pursue research in the Philippines on Muslim Filipinas employed as domestic workers in the Middle East. She was also awarded the National Security Education Program (NSEP) David Boren Fellowship in 2006 to study the Indonesian and Malay languages as well as conduct field research in Malaysia and Philippines. Mira can be reached at mirayusef@muawi.org.
Nina Jusuf is the Program Director of National Organization of API Ending Sexual Violence (NAPIESV). Nina has been involved in Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault issues since 1992. She started as a volunteer and several years later held the Executive Director position of a Rape Crisis Center in San Francisco. After experiencing burnout and watching other sisters leave the movement due to exhaustion, she started learning and practicing trauma based wellness techniques. She has facilitated sustaining activism and integrated security workshops for Women Human Rights Defenders and nongovernmental organizations’ staff in USA, Regional Asia, Indonesia, Timor Leste, Serbia and the Balkans.
PREVIOUS 2017 TRAININGS
June
A Long Shadow: Understanding Survivors with a Harmful History
May
Serving Incarcerated Survivors #2: Understanding the role of the advocate (recording)
February
Intersections of Sexual Violence: HIV/AIDS (recording)
Serving Incarcerated Survivors #1: Prison Rape Culture (recording)
January
Partners in Prevention: Comprehensive prevention programming with target audiences or groups
PREVIOUS 2016 TRAININGS
October
Partners in Prevention: Understanding Offender Management
July
Evidence-based Practice #3: Understanding Community-Level Risk Factors and Community-Level Change (recording)
Understanding the Intersection of Substance Use & Trauma (recording)
June
Serving Campus Survivors (recording)
May
Evidence-based Practice #2: Individual- & Relationship-Level Risk Factors for Perpetration (recording)
April
Evidence-based Practice Series: Evidence, Prevention, and Practice (recording)
March
Confidential Sexual Violence Advocate: Their role within the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) (recording)
January
Understanding Rape Culture (recording)
Planning for Sexual Assault Awareness Month (recording)
Previous 2015 Trainings
December
Media Literacy 101: How Media Influences Rape Culture
Promoting Meaningful Campus-Program Partnerships (recording)
November
Addressing Violence Against Women with Developmental Disabilities (recording)
September
Beyond points on a graph: Discovering ways data can strengthen programming and local prevention efforts (recording)
August
Getting to Know the New Evidence Retention Guidelines
June
Preparing Survivors for the Criminal Justice System
March
Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation (recording)
February
Capturing the Impact of Our Work
January
Language Access for Sexual Violence Program Members (recording)