Written by: Jennifer F Tofaeono, Ex Director Photo downloaded from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoans
The American Samoa Alliance was awarded an additional year thru Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to continue our work thru the Rape Prevention Education (RPE) Program to enhance the capacity for sexual violence prevention across the territory Sexual Assault Coalitions, like the Alliance. In the application for the grant, we talked about our previous approach to asking the community to share their stories regarding sexual assault in their villages and homes. The villages we entered are hot spots where the individuals as described as “poor”, where “parents are on drugs” and sadly the victims are primarily children. According to the participants of the previous CDC RPE Talanoa sessions held in American Samoa June 2023- June 2024, participants stated the lack of education and awareness is the primary cause of sexual violence and absence of effective preventative actions. They cited ineffective communication, culture, environmental instability (unsafe spaces, poverty, etc), stigma and shame and personal characteristics of perpetrators (substance abuse, mental health issues, gender-based power) as risk factors. In this second year of funding the Alliance plans to address issues of health equity facing our population in American Samoa by addressing barriers to language and poverty. Using our Samoan language including language for other ethnic groups who reside in American Samoa (Filipino, Chinese, Tongan, etc), where the Alliance will use online resources to help point victims to resources tailored in their cultural needs and language. We will continue to create community outreach and education to increase prevention about sexual violence and teach prevention strategies to promote healthy relationships and empower individuals to intervene safely. This will be done with the assistance of our Communications Manager, Ms. Marilyn HoChing, Communications Manager, Ms Vatau Fanene and Executive Director, Jennifer Tofaeono. We are excited to have you follow our Alliance Team as continue to gather stories with stakeholders to assess their understanding of health equity issues and identify opportunities for collaboration. We will conduct an equity impact assessment of College Students & Youth groups over the age of 18 to assess its potential impact on students of color, low-income students and Fa’afafine youth. We will continue to build trust and rapport by being transparent and show a genuine commitment to collaboration, as we schedule one on one meetings with stakeholders to discuss their concerns and priorities regarding sexual violence prevention. Our focus will be to work together with partners and the community to strengthen our common goals. Lastly, we will plan 4 meetings with government agencies, community leaders, underserved communities and non-profit organizations to collectively define goals and objectives of the sexual violence prevention initiatives. The next year for CDC Rape Prevention Education thru the Alliance and our local partners will be filled with challenging goals, but we are confident in the ability of the collective community to support this project. We ask that you continue to follow us every month as we update you on this project.
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![]() Written by Luana Scanlan For the last 14 years, the American Samoa Alliance Against Domestic and Sexual Violence aka Alliance, has engaged the American Samoan community to build capacity to prevent violence and support survivors of violence. From the building of infrastructure to implement grant-funded programs to community education and outreach, the Alliance has grown its capacity to provide culturally specific training and safe spaces in which to engage with people of all ages. For the last six years, the Alliance conducted evaluation activities to document its processes, monitor implementation, and continuously identify opportunities for improvement. The annual Activity Assessment is disseminated to the Board of Directors, and Staff, and made available on the Alliance’s website. Year after year the evaluation results document significant gains in the scope of the Alliance’s service deliverables, reach via media and community activities, and number of partnerships both local and national. The CDC Rape Prevention Education (RPE) grant is the first of its kind awarded to an entity in the Territory. With these funds, the Alliance successfully completed the first RPE Capacity Assessment of community leadership and partners around sexual violence prevention in the Territory. Sex education is not taught in the local school system. Strongly held religious values and pervasive cultural and social stigma surrounding sex and sexual violence are the main challenges to facilitating discussions on the topic. The Alliance has worked around this by focusing its efforts on community-level change in two areas: improving safety of physical spaces and building partnerships through which prevention activities can be implemented. Using a mixed-methods approach, existing validated survey tools and focus group questions were modified, and implementation protocols were developed with a culturally empathetic and equity-focused lens to incorporate diverse spiritual, physical, and intellectual values, and beliefs. Data was collected, analyzed, and reported (see RPE final report) What does rape prevention look like? In American Samoa, it looks like
The majority of prevention efforts focus on social media messaging and village outreach to youth. Whether we see a downturn in the incidence of sexual violence in American Samoa will depend largely upon the effectiveness of the Alliance’s work with young people. Focus group participants express the need to communicate with their children about sex but are unsure of how. They also feel that as adults it is much more difficult to cross the communication barriers raised by stigma and cultural protocol. Community-informed action steps? The second success of the Assessment is an outline of action steps or recommendations that informants suggest boosting prevention efforts:
RPE is comprehensive, inclusive, and collaborative. Changing attitudes requires time and patience. Successful funding for three years of RPE implementation allows the Alliance to act on the Assessment results. ![]() Written by: Luana Scanlan The Alliance’s Rape Prevention Education (RPE) Program aims to give people knowledge and skills to prevent sexual violence and provide support to those who may have experienced it in their lives. Sexual violence includes, rape, the threat of rape, attempted rape, sexual harassment, sexual coercion and forced sexual contact. Anyone can be a victim or violator regardless of age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity or ability. Preventing sexual violence requires that we not make assumptions or generalizations about people in our community – our ethnic, church, work, family, friend, and home communities. Each person experiences and thinks about sexual behavior in unique ways. Do not assume. Do not think everyone of a specific gender, religion, ethnicity, etc. is the same. You can practice three behaviors to prevent sexual violence, which means making sure that it never happens in the first place. 1. CONSENT - Maliega e Auai A person gives consent when he/she/they feel free to say how they really feel about something, and without feeling pressured into doing something that they don’t want to do. There are three times in particular, where people may not have the ability to provide consent:
4 steps to consent First, understand what you are comfortable with. Second, ask the person you are with the same thing. It’s best to have direct conversations so that there’s no room for confusion. It can be simple questions like, ‘Are you okay with kissing?’, or ‘Do you feel safe in our being together like this?’ Third, understand what you are comfortable with. Fourth, practice your ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ to build confidence in standing up for what you want. Listening is an important part of consent. When listening be aware of body language as well as what is being said out loud. If someone is saying 'Maybe', 'I’m not sure', starts backing away, is staying really still or being silent they are not saying yes - they are not giving consent. Consent may look and sound like: · Yes! · I really want to... · I want you/this/that · This feels right · I’m okay with this/that Sex without consent is sexual violence…Someone staying silent or saying maybe is not consent. 2. RESPECT – Fa’aaloalo Respect can look different in all the different relationships that we have. First and foremost is respect for yourself – your rights, values, safety. Respect also means never forcing, pressuring or guilting someone into doing something they don’t want to do. Asking for consent is respectful. 3. SUPPORT - Lagolago People heal from sexual violence in different ways and at different speeds. For some people sometimes it is about getting through one day at a time. Supporting those at risk will prevent violence from happening in the first place. Finally, preventing sexual violence involves reporting what you see and experience in ways that you feel do not put you in harm’s way. ![]() Written by: Luana Scanlan In 2023, the Alliance was blessed with funding from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to assess its capacity to design, implement, and evaluate activities to prevent rape and sexual assault. The following are findings from the assessment activities which included community surveys, group and individual talanoa, and reviews of the Alliance’s past activities. The RPE Project documented insufficient availability of sexual violence primary prevention efforts in the community. For example, group and interview participants were given the CDC definition of primary prevention, then asked to describe activities in the community that would meet this definition. Every time this was asked the facilitator/interviewer was met with silence. However, there is evidence of: • sufficient stakeholder commitment to, and knowledge of, primary prevention, • comprehensive understanding of community partnerships and collaboration efforts, • and the need for culturally appropriate primary prevention efforts that incorporate the fa’aSamoa (Samoan worldview and sense of self) and faith-based values. The Assessment produced a summary of the Alliance’s resources to establish effective rape prevention program activities, evaluate the effectiveness of its efforts, coordinate the allocation of resources, and increase Coalition and community readiness to develop and implement primary prevention strategies through training and outreach. Assessment findings include: To ‘a large extent’ the Alliance promotes health equity through its work by encouraging the removal of root causes and conditions of sexual violence. The Alliance collaborates with partners to collect data that identifies appropriate target populations and the needs and challenges experienced by them to ensure cultural competency and inclusion in all its activities. ‘To a large extent’, the Alliance uses data to prioritize planning and implementation, and ‘to a very large extent’ it uses stakeholder feedback to modify its work when challenges are identified. The Alliance’s foundational partnerships, grounded in relationships and purpose, are in place to meet current and future RPE primary prevention and health equity work needs. The Alliance and its partners demonstrate a strong propensity for leadership that incorporates equity and prioritizes primary prevention of sexual violence. The Alliance’s leadership is ‘to a large’ or ‘very large’ extent committed to advancing health equity. One of the greatest challenges that emerged is getting community members to ‘own’ the issues and participate in the planning work towards solutions so that there is trust in the process and value in the partnerships that are forged. In 2024, the Alliance modified its mission to become more inclusive by restating the target population as ‘all individuals and communities in American Samoa’ replacing the prior description of ‘American Samoans’. By widening its scope and welcoming all communities to participate, the Alliance can work towards co-creating a larger proverbial ‘table’ to seat more members, and include diverse interests and perspectives. ![]() Written by Luana Scanlan In 2023, the Alliance was blessed with funding from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to assess its capacity to design, implement, and evaluate activities to prevent rape and sexual assault. The following are findings from the assessment activities which included community surveys, group and individual talanoa, and reviews of the Alliance’s past activities. The RPE Project documented insufficient availability of sexual violence primary prevention efforts in the community. For example, group and interview participants were given the CDC definition of primary prevention, then asked to describe activities in the community that would meet this definition. Every time this was asked the facilitator/interviewer was met with silence. However, there is evidence of: • sufficient stakeholder commitment to, and knowledge of, primary prevention, • comprehensive understanding of community partnerships and collaboration efforts, • and the need for culturally appropriate primary prevention efforts that incorporate the fa’aSamoa (Samoan worldview and sense of self) and faith-based values. The Assessment produced a summary of the Alliance’s resources to establish effective rape prevention program activities, evaluate the effectiveness of its efforts, coordinate the allocation of resources, and increase Coalition and community readiness to develop and implement primary prevention strategies through training and outreach. Assessment findings include: To ‘a large extent’ the Alliance promotes health equity through its work by encouraging the removal of root causes and conditions of sexual violence. The Alliance collaborates with partners to collect data that identifies appropriate target populations and the needs and challenges experienced by them to ensure cultural competency and inclusion in all its activities. ‘To a large extent’, the Alliance uses data to prioritize planning and implementation, and ‘to a very large extent’ it uses stakeholder feedback to modify its work when challenges are identified. The Alliance’s foundational partnerships, grounded in relationships and purpose, are in place to meet current and future RPE primary prevention and health equity work needs. The Alliance and its partners demonstrate a strong propensity for leadership that incorporates equity and prioritizes primary prevention of sexual violence. The Alliance’s leadership is ‘to a large’ or ‘very large’ extent committed to advancing health equity. One of the greatest challenges that emerged is getting community members to ‘own’ the issues and participate in the planning work towards solutions so that there is trust in the process and value in the partnerships that are forged. In 2024, the Alliance modified its mission to become more inclusive by restating the target population as ‘all individuals and communities in American Samoa’ replacing the prior description of ‘American Samoans’. By widening its scope and welcoming all communities to participate, the Alliance can work towards co-creating a larger proverbial ‘table’ to seat more members, and include diverse interests and perspectives. ![]() Written by: Luana Scanlan In 2023, the Alliance was blessed with funding from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to assess its capacity to design, implement, and evaluate activities to prevent rape and sexual assault. The following are findings from the assessment activities which included community surveys, group and individual talanoa, and reviews of the Alliance’s past activities. The RPE Project documented insufficient availability of sexual violence primary prevention efforts in the community. For example, group and interview participants were given the CDC definition of primary prevention, then asked to describe activities in the community that would meet this definition. Every time this was asked the facilitator/interviewer was met with silence. However, there is evidence of: • sufficient stakeholder commitment to, and knowledge of, primary prevention, • comprehensive understanding of community partnerships and collaboration efforts, and the need for culturally appropriate primary prevention efforts that incorporate the fa'aSamoa (Samoan worldview and sense of self) and faith-based values. The Assessment produced a summary of the Alliance’s resources to establish effective rape prevention program activities, evaluate the effectiveness of its efforts, coordinate the allocation of resources, and increase Coalition and community readiness to develop and implement primary prevention strategies through training and outreach. Assessment findings include: To ‘a large extent’ the Alliance promotes health equity through its work by encouraging the removal of root causes and conditions of sexual violence. The Alliance collaborates with partners to collect data that identifies appropriate target populations and the needs and challenges experienced by them to ensure cultural competency and inclusion in all its activities. ‘To a large extent’, the Alliance uses data to prioritize planning and implementation, and ‘to a very large extent’ it uses stakeholder feedback to modify its work when challenges are identified. The Alliance’s foundational partnerships, grounded in relationships and purpose, are in place to meet current and future RPE primary prevention and health equity work needs. The Alliance and its partners demonstrate a strong propensity for leadership that incorporates equity and prioritizes primary prevention of sexual violence. The Alliance’s leadership is ‘to a large’ or ‘very large’ extent committed to advancing health equity. One of the greatest challenges that emerged is getting community members to ‘own’ the issues and participate in the planning work towards solutions so that there is trust in the process and value in the partnerships that are forged. In 2024, the Alliance modified its mission to become more inclusive by restating the target population as ‘all individuals and communities in American Samoa’ replacing the prior description of ‘American Samoans’. By widening its scope and welcoming all communities to participate, the Alliance can work towards co-creating a larger proverbial ‘table’ to seat more members, and include diverse interests and perspectives. Written by: Luana Scanlan
How the Alliance is Developing Primary Prevention for Our Community Connecting with the community is the Alliance’s main strategy for all of its prevention efforts. ‘Connecting’ involves showing up to our partners’ events, building relationships that support our mutual goals, and above all . . . listening. With purpose and authenticity In this process of connecting, we come to understand shared risk and protective factors of violence in all its forms. While the root cause of violence may be power of one over another, there are, as we have learned from our community members, many factors that shape what power looks like and how it is wielded. These factors include one’s culture, level of education and worldly experience, social status, one’s values and how one is raised as a child, among many others. Community connectedness is a shared protective factor that could have a broad impact on violence in the community. One form of violence, for example, bullying, can increase families’ and individuals’ risk for domestic violence. A community that has a zero-tolerance for violence, whose members watch out for each other, and who step in to protect potential victims can help the Alliance to develop services and strategies that would have the widest impact. In our interviews with community members, we have learned that while violence has no boundaries, there are ‘hot spots’ in some villages. These areas are described as “poor”, “young parents on drugs”, “druggies living in rented houses”, and sadly, the victims are primarily the children. While the village around them functions, these areas are known to the community and avoided. These individuals and their community are dis-connected. Preventing violence involves engagement through communication, not avoidance. And a key principle of this approach is cultural competency. Knowing the situation, it is important to connect through communication within the context of the unique views, values, and ways of doing things in a community. Listening to the community is how we learn to communicate in a culturally competent way. Simply translating education materials into a different language does not constitute a culturally appropriate or relevant strategy as it does not address the different ways communities talk and think about violence. Nor does it reach those who need the help the most. Every intervention the Alliance implements involves connecting with the community by . . .
![]() Written by: Luana Scanlan According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, there are five damaging social customs or norms linked to the sexual violence normalized in rape culture[1]:
Through social norming people, regardless of gender, are made to feel as though they have a responsibility, but not the power, to avoid being sexually violated. Norms may support the idea that only men are the perpetrators, that they cannot be victims, and that because sexual behavior is associated with male character (strong, masculine, etc.) they cannot be held responsible for their actions – it’s just ‘in their nature’. Because the narrative has been controlled by men their voices set the norm. Consequently, rape culture empowers the rapists and averts perpetrator accountability through victim blaming and negative stigma linked to sex and individual behaviors. In these ways victims become fearful of not being believed: the impact it will have on their families, the reflection it will have on their loved ones. A victim may not even realize that the act is criminal. The concept of rape within a marital relationship is still foreign to many people who believe that sex is a husband’s “right”. Rape culture objectifies and oppresses all people and in doing so prevents a society from engaging in democratic, equitable conversations about rape prevention. For example, 47% of bisexual men and 40% of gay men have experienced some form of sexual violence in their lifetime[2]. Yet, the visual of a rape victim continues to center on a young woman. Only recently have social messaging promoted the ideas that gender roles and sexual preferences do not determine vulnerability, or that rape is really about power not sex. The impact of rape culture is evidenced by the acceptance of sexist jokes, prevalence of music and videos that objectify women, the discounting of victims’ experiences and rights, the lack of effective deterrents such as enforcement of laws criminalizing sex acts including assault and harassment. The complex interrelated factors that perpetuate rape culture also support other forms of violence and inequity. In our next article we’ll review culturally based risk and protective factors that impact the incidence and prevalence of sexual violence. [1] Davis, R., et al., (2010). Sexual violence and the spectrum of prevention: Towards a community solution. www.nsvrc.org [2] Walters, M. L., Chen J., & Breiding, M. J. (2013). The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 Findings on Victimization by Sexual Orientation. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Written by: Luana Yoshikawa-Scanlan, CDC RPE
Rape culture is the normalization and justification of sexual violence in a community. Social norms - beliefs, values, and attitudes - minimize the impact of sexual violence. In many cases the responsibility is placed on the victim, and those vulnerable to sexual violence, to ‘avoid’ situations where they may be sexually violated. In response to a person being raped or sexually assaulted you may hear things like “She asked for it” or “He’s a guy – she should have known better”. This victim blaming approach is the fuel that drives social norms that perpetuate rape culture. Placing blame and responsibility for someone else’s (the rapist) actions on the victim prevents society from holding the rapist accountable. Stigma is then associated with the victim – weakness, sexual object, ‘loose’ and immoral instead of the act of rape itself. You may hear or see messages in the media and from parents or teachers that advise girls not to walk alone at night, not to wear ‘revealing’ clothes, not to flirt or ‘party’ and ‘lead boys on’. Not, not, not…focusing on the possible victim’s behavior instead of the possible perpetrator. Girls are told ‘don’t get raped’ whereas the message should be ‘don’t rape.’ According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), approximately 96% of those who sexually abuse children are male. 90% of rape victims are female. In the U.S., 433,648 Americans aged 12 and older were sexually assaulted or raped between 2010-2014[1]. Yet rape is one of the least prosecuted crimes in the U.S.:
The Centers of Disease Control (CDC) provides support for the primary prevention of rape and sexual violence. Following the social-ecological model, prevention activities address the complex interrelated root causes of rape culture and sexual violence at every level of society. These activities include supporting working parents with safe and affordable childcare, establishing school and workplace policies that promote social norms to protect people against sexual violence, empowering vulnerable individuals with opportunities to learn protective skills. As we’ll see in next month’s article, rape culture negatively impacts us all – especially our youth. [1] Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey, 2010-2014 (2015) [2] Kingi, V., Jordan, J. et al., (2009). Responding to sexual violence: pathways to recovery. Univ. of Wellington Crime & Justice Research Center. www.library.nvfvc.org.nz [3]https://www.thehivelaw.com/blog/how-many-rapists-are-convicted/#:~:text=~3%2C258%20rapists%20are%20convicted%20per,per%20year%20in%20the%20US. The Alliance Rape Prevention Education Project has conducted Talanoa Sessions within the community to help develop the process and outcome evaluation to assess Rape Prevention Education capacity to advance health equity focused primary prevention strategies and to address root causes of sexual violence (SV) in American Samoa.
In the next few months the Alliance will create eight activities to answer and address the Centers for Disease and Controls evaluation questions. The following activities will be done: 1. Conduct an audit of primary prevention and health equity resources used by partners and staff, and available through the CDC. The compilation of these will be made available for dissemination on the Alliance website. 2. Engage two groups of community members to understand their knowledge of SV primary prevention, their experiences and attitudes regarding SV, the context in which SV is understood and discussed in their communities (language, social norms, cultural protocols, etc.) 3. Engage stakeholders to identify SV prevention efforts in the Territory of American Samoa and gauge the extent to which health equity is incorporated into SV prevention strategies by conducting the following: 3a) Survey of Alliance staff and partners 3b) Talanoa Session with Alliance staff and Board members 3c) key informant (informal or semi-structured) interviews with primary stakeholders (service providers, service users, etc.) 3d) a non-randomized survey of stakeholders using the Community Engagement Assessment tool (www.nexuscp.org/ncei) 3d) a review of administrative data including past assessments of DVSA, annual reports, organizational documents, etc. 4. Develop and disseminate PSAs (ProVision Consultant) informed by the focus group data to further engage community members through social media. 5. Write and disseminate articles for the Alliance’s monthly newsletter, Tusitala, to inform stakeholders of the RPE assessment activities and progress. If you are interested in participating in this project please do not hesitate to contact our office and ask for Lessie to sign up for a Talanoa Session. If you would like more information regarding this project please continue to follow us online as we update every month. |
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