TDH Booklet4 - Texas Association Against Sexual Assault

FOREWARD - Call To Action
Primary Prevention
The Violence Against Women Prevention Project focuses on
primary prevention of violence against women. Recognizing Texas’
leadership in providing intervention services and prevention efforts
to reduce the reoccurrence of violence against women, 31 the project
heeded the recommendations of major reports from the field that
call for organized collaborative efforts to stop sexual assault,
domestic violence and stalking before they occur – primary
prevention. 32 In so doing, the state has the potential to build on
existing infrastructure and knowledge of those experienced with
mitigating violence to create new collaborations and galvanize
efforts emphasizing primary prevention. Because serious efforts to
end the complex problems associated with violence against women
are only beginning, Texas also has the potential to serve as a
leader nationally and internationally, providing critical data and
documentation of primary prevention initiatives and outcomes.
Due to the sheer size and
complexity of the problems
and their social and
economic consequences,
sexual assault, domestic
violence and stalking
affect the well-being of
every sector, every
community, every Texan.
Focusing on primary prevention moves violence against
women from being viewed as the problem of a specific group (i.e.,
women) or from the domain of a specialized sector, into the more
realistic realm of the general public. By definition, primary
prevention relies on a proactive, evidence-based collaborative
approach to direct many different strategies toward a universal
audience. 33 Due to the sheer size and complexity of the problems
and their social and economic consequences, sexual assault,
domestic violence and stalking affect the well-being of every sector,
every community, every Texan.
A STRATEGIC PLAN TO PREVENT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN TEXAS
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