We believe prevention is possible.
SARA Prevention Programs aim to reduce risk factors of perpetration and to create sustainable cultural change for safer, more empathetic communities. Meet the team of three who lead our efforts toward creating communities free from sexual violence in schools, restaurants and bars, faith communities, and more.
An Interview with SARA's Prevention Team
Meet the Team
Laurie Jean - Director of Prevention, Rebekah - Prevention Training Specialist, and Jada - Bystander Empowerment Specialist (from left to right).
What does the SARA Prevention Team do?
We join with community members in neighborhoods, restaurants, schools, places of worship, and jails. Together, we find ways to make our community a place where everyone will be safe and protected.
Tell us more about yourselves and what are you working on in 2020.
Laurie Jean: I have spent the past 12 years working with the community to make everyone safer. As the team leader, I’m so happy with how we each really listen to our communities, and partner with them to identify how their environments could change for the better. I am particularly passionate about communities coming together and choosing to care for each other, including holding people accountable in restorative ways. I’m passionate about empowering parents to educate their children and teens about healthy relationships and consent. I believe all children deserve to learn about their emotions and feel like they belong in our community.
Rebekah: At work, I am passionate about creating a safer and more equitable community through conversation and education. I love to empower people and watch them learn and grow through my programs. I particularly love doing this through my work with restaurants, with dads in the jail, and with teens and young adults. In my free time, I love trying new things, making things, and feeding people. You can find me at one of my (too) many hobbies, including baking, at the Clay studio, or at a soccer game!
Jada: Although I studied Hospitality and gained a degree in this field, I have a strong passion for helping others and promoting the idea of resilience. I love to work with teens and children while also fulfilling my goal to sustain a healthy, safe community. I hope to teach the youth that they are powerful and can make a difference through bystander intervention.
Green Dot is a curriculum that we use to give the skills and tools needed to be an effective bystander. Although we focus on the high school level, there are Green Dot curricula catered to colleges and universities as well as the military. Green Dot includes students in the conversation of addressing acts of harm in their community. We specifically touch on the topics of sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, child abuse, and racial discrimination. We focus on the solutions to these problems and how to intervene when you see these acts of harm in order to decrease these acts as a community. Green Dot is about stepping up and empowering everyone to do something when they see something.”