Speakers: Bernadette Dolen; Rachel Wilson, New York State Department of Health

Sexual violence is a preventable but significant social and public health problem across the nation. Certain populations are more at risk of sexual violence than others because of individual and regional factors. In a comprehensive review of literature, publicly available tools and resources 12 individual-, relationship- and community level risk factors for sexual violence victimization and perpetration were identified. County-level data for these risk factors was obtained from federal sources and state agency databases, were used to develop a sexual violence risk index (SVRI) for New York State. Counties with high proportions of populations with these risk factors were identified and used to prioritize awarding of contracts to local organizations for implementing sexual violence prevention efforts. During this session we will describe the risk factors used in development of the SVRI, how counties were ranked and identified as high risk, and also describe other elements used to determine award of funding. Other elements include addressing social determinants of health, training and capacity building as well as engagement of community members via focus groups when planning and implementing prevention strategies. Participants will be engaged in a group discussion about the limitations of state-level data for sexual violence prevention.