| | AN E-NEWSLETTER FOR THE ANTI-SEXUAL VIOLENCE COMMUNITY |  | | | | The Alliance is proud to announce the successful launch of an unprecedented, one-of-a-kind multimedia public education campaign about sexual violence and the resources available to victims in New York City. Be SAFE NYC was launched at the beginning of July. The comprehensive campaign includes six public service announcements (PSAs) airing throughout NYC in movie theatres, on cable television, in NYC Taxicabs and online.
The message of the PSAs focuses on establishing public trust in utilizing the 911 call system and the private, compassionate and victim-centered care that SAFE (Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner) services provide. The PSA also highlights the availability of additional resources online at www.BeSafeNYC.org; we are thrilled to offer these resources in six different languages: Chinese, Creole, English, Korean, Russian, and Spanish.
Director and Producer Amy Hart and her production team at The New York Academy of Medicine's Public Health Productions Office produced six different versions of PSA, and she speaks about the campaign by saying, "Our aim is to deliver public health messages that can really change people's lives. When a victim of rape knows what to do -- call 911 and get to a SAFE Center immediately -- the chances of them healing, both physically and emotionally, improve dramatically. So we were honored to work with the wonderful team at the Alliance and produce this critical public health message."
The actresses in the PSAs are not only volunteers but dedicated healthcare professionals working to keep NYC's victim-centered care the best it can be. Karen Carroll RN, who plays the role of the SAFE examiner, is an actual nationally recognized SAFE examiner, as well as the Associate Director of the Bronx Sexual Assault Response Team. Christine Witmer, a Rape Crisis and Domestic Violence Advocate at Beth Israel, played the role as a survivor and says, "It was an amazing experience to shoot this PSA and to experiment with empathizing with the survivor role. I believe that this experience will help me in becoming a better advocate and person. I hope that raising awareness of the SAFE centers and the amazing work that the social workers, doctors, nurses and volunteers perform on a daily basis will help survivors to step forward. They need to know that there are now wonderful resources available to them!"
The Alliance, along with New York City and State have been developing laws, standards, regulations and protocols for best care of sexual assault victims for many years and currently, New York City has 19 SAFE Centers of Excellence operating in all five boroughs. This multimedia campaign will serve as a significant platform to increase the public's consciousness by reaching an estimated eight million New Yorkers and informing them of the underrepresented but fundamental services that SAFE centers have to offer: free, compassionate victim-centered services available, advisable -- and most notably -- assured to victims and their loved ones.
Our creation of multimedia health communication initiatives have us venturing into brand new territory, but one that we hope to elaborate on as this project continues to flourish in years to come. This campaign will not be a one-time event; we are developing new initiatives which can be built upon the multi-media tools we created with this campaign.
read more: SVFREENYC.ORG | | | | |
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