The name Nancy is a common household word around The Center. For the past 18 years or so, Nancy Housel has been the Forensic Nurse Examiner and Coordinator of the Sexual Assault Response Team for Marshall Hospital where she works closely with our advocates when doing sexual assault and domestic violence examinations.

The El Dorado County Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) is a multidisciplinary group of local professionals that includes a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, The Center Advocates, Law Enforcement and the District Attorney's Office, who work together to care for adult and child survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence as well as child abuse victims and hold the offender accountable in the criminal justice system.

Nancy has been the SART nurse and coordinator of the SART program for the past 18 years and she is due to retire this year. We thought it would be great to let our readers know what an important role Nancy has played in the lives of some of our clients and the community in general; so we caught up with her recently and got to hear some interesting things!

Center: What was the genesis for the SART program?

Nancy: Marshall has had a SART program in place for over 20 years, incorporating a multidisciplinary, interagency, intervention model that is a team approach to implementing a comprehensive, sensitive, and coordinated system of intervention and care for victims of sexual assault and family violence, providing for their medical, forensic and advocacy needs.

Center: What is your history and involvement with the program?  

Nancy: I've spent the past 18 years as a Forensic Nurse Examiner and coordinator of the SART program at Marshall Medical Center.

Center: What would you say to someone who is afraid to go to the hospital for a SART exam?

Nancy: Deciding to go the ER is always a frightening and memorable experience; going because you are a victim of a violent act is especially so.  I have seen so many patients come in as victims but leave as survivors, because all their needs- psychological, advocacy, medical, safety and forensic needs were met in one multidisciplinary package. How well one is treated when in crisis has so much influence in the healing process, and assisting the criminal justice system with removing a violent predator from the community at large can go a long way in that transformation from victim to survivor.

Center: What are you hopes for the future of the SART program?

Nancy: Lainey Green, FNP and Forensic Examiner extraordinaire is taking over the SART program at Marshall, which is a huge score for El Dorado County.  Can't think of a better person to hand this over to!

Center: When was the first time you heard about The Center?  With whom were you speaking? What was happening?  

Nancy: I originally thought of volunteering with The Center as a way of assisting with victims of family/domestic/sexual violence.  An opening came up in for a nurse in the SART program, and I realized that was where I could best serve my community. (This was 20 years ago best my memory serves me.  Ken Stefan (RIP) and Sue Huffstettler were the great and big movers and shakers at The Center then.)

Center: What are your hopes for your future?

Nancy: Master Gardener?  I'm still a work in progress... I am very satisfied I'm leaving the Marshall SART program in the best of hands.  

Center: If you had a personal mission statement, what would it be?

Nancy: Peace on Earth!  To achieve this, we need peaceful countries, which means peaceful communities, which means peaceful families, which means peace in the hearts of all men...a lifelong task.  One must start with their own community- think globally by acting locally.

We hope you'll join us in wishing Nancy well as she rides off into the sunset to spend more time with her grandkids. We will truly miss her and the care and compassion that she brings to her work each day. 

Stopping to empty rain out of their boots didn't stop these street warriors from enjoying the 6th Annual Kacie's Ride for Hope to end domestic violence.

While rain clouds threatened over 350 people came down to the Bell Tower on Main Street in Placerville.  Matt Huckabay, The Center's Executive Director welcomed the crowd and thanked the Down Town Association for closing off Main street again this year. 

Pat Barron and  Judy Knapp, former Director of Education and Training with The Center and current Executive Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters, spoke to the crowd about how to help victims of domestic violence.   "Listen to them." stated Judy... "it's the easiest way to help them."  Judy also stated that men and women alike have to speak out against domestic violence.

Despite the whacky weather, folks had a great time.  Be on the look out for next year's event! We'll see ya'll there!

The Center's Special Volunteer Unit (SVU) is growing! We are about 1/3 of the way through the winter training with 14 volunteers moving through the sessions, sharing great enthusiasm and curiosity about the dynamics of what our clients experience in coping with domestic violence and sexual assault.

The SVU is a diverse group of 7 males and 44 women, contributing expertise from every imaginable profession, from fire and safety, artists, law enforcement, education, recovery, probation, challenged populations, construction, psychology/therapy, and life skills educators.

As a professional development opportunity, we are also recruiting for collaborative agencies to consider enrolling their staff in our trainings with the goal of cultivating a greater understanding and awareness of the dynamic of intimate violence and that they in turn will implement the knowledge in their specific service community.

The Center will be sponsoring another volunteer training class in spring 2012. If you feel you have a talent to enrich our SVU, or would like to enroll your office workers to attend in gaining professional development, please contact Martha at (530) 295-4205 or MarthaB@thecenternow.org  as we would love to expand our sphere of influence within our community. 

If it were only lions and tigers and bears going after our daughters, we might be better equipped to combat the encroaching danger.  However, when the world of beauty pageants encourages 5-year-olds to wear false eyelashes, pushup bras and hair extensions and clothing manufacturers make thongs for 7 to 10 year-old-girls and magazines give instructions to preadolescent girls on how to look sexy and win a boyfriend by losing 10 pounds and straightening their hair [1], I think I'll take my chances in the jungle!

Every year it seems that the sexual message bar gets lowered to include younger and younger children. In our culture, there are too many examples of the sexualization of girls.

Toy manufacturers produce toys like the Bratz dolls with their exploding hair, inflated lips, short black mini-skirts and thigh high boots and market them to 8-12 year olds.  We find sexy images on everything from television to t-shirts.  Popular culture and advertising gurus are inundating our kids with sexual images and messages at earlier ages than ever before.

Halloween has gone from scary to sexy in recent years. Young girls are worrying about their weight and physical appearance at much younger ages. Young girls and boys are wearing racy, obscene and violence-related clothing, including t-shirts with alcohol and sexual innuendo

messages displayed. [2] Walking into the children's section of a department store these days you'd think you'd stumbled into a Fredericks of Hollywood.

Popular clothing manufacturer Abercrombie and Fitch recently released a "Push-up Triangle" padded bikini swim suit top for 7 to 8 year old girls.  ABC News investigated and Dr. Michael Bradley, a child psychologist, told Good Morning America: "They (retailers) are targeting girls as young as 4 years old to be sexualized creatures."  Check out the Today Show's segment below. 

Push-Up Bikini for Kids Controversy - Abercrombie & Fitch.

A little closer to home, a retailer right here in our own community, has a whole section of make-up designed for girls aged 6-12.  

Unfortunately for parents, the tween market (typically kids between the ages of 8 and 14) is one of the most active and growing emergent markets in recent years.   No longer considering themselves children, these youngsters long for some sense of identity.  They want to be "cool," sophisticated and accepted by their peers.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), in their 2007 Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, the sexualization and objectification of women in the media appears to teach girls that as women, all they have to offer is their body and face, and that they should expend all their effort on physical appearance.

So what's wrong with marketing push-up bras and thigh high boots to 7-year-old girls?  According to the APA's report... EVERYTHING. The impact on self-esteem and overall health and well being of young girls is tremendous. Self-objectification can be defined as a person choosing to evaluate themselves based on appearance because that's how they believe others judge them. Young girls suffer body dissatisfaction, depression, shame, appearance anxiety and even self-disgust. They also display higher rates of promiscuity at younger ages.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that at least 10% of American teen girls have an eating disorder. 45% of American high school students surveyed reported to be on a diet. The Girl Scouts of the USA Research Institute found that 31% of girls admit to starving themselves as strategy for weight loss.  

The APA report states that there is "ample evidence ...that sexualization has negative effects in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, sexuality and attitudes and beliefs."[1] With eating disorders and mental health issues, our children are literally dying to obtain the perfect body image.

So with all these messages flying around constantly, how can we as parents, teachers and members of a community push back? What can we do to have a more positive impact on adolescent girls and boys?  

The Center is working on the front lines in the schools in our community with programs like Teens Educating Against Classmate Harassment (TEACH) where middle school aged girls learn to have a positive body image and how to accept themselves for who they are and the MY Strength Club that uses peer-to-peer contact to create new social norms around masculinity promoting gender equality and preventing men's violence. Other school-based approaches include increased access to athletic and other extracurricular programs

Short of moving to an isolated ranch in Montana, there are ways for everyone to help in our community. One simple way that everyone can help is by being upbeat in our comments about our own or someone else's body. A daughter is more likely to be accepting of her own body if her mother is accepting of hers.  

Girl Power is a public education campaign sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Secretary Shalala stated "We want to tell every parent and every caring adult to listen to girls, to encourage them, to help them set high standards and to provide them with opportunities."  

Another factor that can help girls overcome their body worries is a strong male role model, says Girl Power. Studies have found that a strong father figure can help boost a girl's confidence. Joe Kelly, president of Dads & Daughters, a nonprofit organization, is helping promote this idea. He says dads need to be aware of the culture's influence on girls and how damaging it can be to their body image and well-being.  Kelly said that rather than focus on physical appearance, dads should focus on other qualities, such as how smart, creative or talented a daughter is. "Focus on what her brain does, what her mind does and what her spirit does," he says. "What her body does and not on how it looks, because that's not why we have our bodies. We don't have our bodies for their appearance -- we have our bodies for what they can do and what it helps us bring to the world."

Co-viewing of media with your children will allow you to influence their interpretation of the media messages. Interpreting the media messages for boys as well as girls is equally important. Young boys need to be clued in that the images they see of women and girls are sexualized images that are destructive and not linked with reality.

Parents, teachers, coaches and other caregivers can encourage kids to find alternative media sources. Find blogs and websites that encourage kids to get out and create social change or become activists. Girls for a Change is a website that provides girls with positive professional role models. DOsomething.org inspires, empowers and celebrates a generation of doers: young people (25 and under) who recognize the need to do something, believe in their ability to get it done, and then take action. New Moon Girls is an online community where girls can create and share artwork, poems. This website boasts that it is 100% advertising free and is designed to help girls discover their true selves. There are also retreats and camps that can help girls develop a stronger sense of self such as REALgirl® in Southern California.

So take the challenge! Raise your voice, get clued in! Think of one thing you can do over this next week to make a difference and combat the forces that are encroaching and harming the physical and emotional health of our daughters, nieces, neighbors and friends.