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February 2018 Newsletter

Together with Love is days away! Register today! Get the rest of your MCRCC news here.

Click here to read The Advocate, Feb. 2018!

At which ages is human trafficking prevention most effective?

January 29, 2018

Our Prevention and Educations programs believe it’s never too early to begin teaching healthy boundaries, the right to say “No”, and the grooming techniques associated with sexual abuse and exploitation. These elements come together, in an age-appropriate way, to build the foundation of human trafficking and rape prevention.

While statistics about sexual assault and trafficking are difficult to track, given the secrecy and stigma around the subject, the Polaris Project cites 44% of sex trafficking survivors estimated that they were 17 or younger when they were first....

Human Trafficking in Monterey County

Jan. 2018 - By Deborah Pembrook, Outreach Advocate

Human trafficking is a serious problem in our community. After two years of concentrated work as an agency, Monterey County Rape Crisis Center is striving to reach survivors, raise awareness and teach our community how to identify and respond to this urgent issue.  

All too often, when I share about human trafficking at a training or during an outreach event, I’m asked by people in the community if human trafficking even happens here. As an Outreach Advocate at MCRCC, I’ve come to learn that there is a lot of confusion and quite a few....

December 2017 Newsletter

New Advocates, Board members, events and more! Season's Greetings from MCRCC! Click to read our December 2017 newsletter, The Advocate.

What we should already know about #MeToo

November 2, 2017

In the aftermath of the New York Times and The New Yorker investigative reports, the #MeToo posts on Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram tell an important truth, but it is a truth we should already know.

The "Me Too" Campaign was established a decade ago “to be used from survivor to survivor to let folks know that they were not alone and that a movement for radical healing was happening and possible,” said "Me Too" creator Tarana Burke. On October 15, 2017, actress Alyssa Milano picked up the "Me Too" campaign by tweeting “If you’ve been sexually harassed or....

MCRCC updated its mission!

October 30, 2017

The Monterey County Rape Crisis Center has been thinking about updating its mission statement to include human trafficking and child abuse for a long time. Last Friday, MCRCC’s Board of Directors met and amended our mission statement to the following:

"To provide ongoing advocacy, support and healing for all victims and survivors of sexual assault, human trafficking and child abuse; and to prevent sexual violence in our community through education."

Since MCRCC’s founding in 1973, MCRCC has provided services to survivors of commercial sexual exploitation and human....

Why BASU alarms are the new rape whistle and just as ineffective

On September 12, 2017, KION ran a story on CSUMB distributing BASU alarms to students to prevent sexual assaults on campus. BASU alarms are small, plastic devices that let out a high-pitched loud sound that is supposed to startle attackers and alert nearby people to step in and help. We applaud CSUMB for taking steps to protect their students, however, there are two main problems with trying to address campus sexual assaults with such devices.

The first is that passing out alarms doesn’t address the reality of sexual assault. These devices would only be effective if people are being....

Title IX works to make campuses safer from sexual assault

This commentary was published in the Monterey Herald on 9/25/17.

During the week of September 10th, 2017, the Monterey Herald published two articles by New York Times Columnists that were in support of Education Secretary Betsy Devos’ recent statement about Title IX and sexual assault on campus. (Bret Stephens: “DeVos ending campus witch hunt on sexual assault,” and Ross Douthat: “Liberalism and the campus rape tribunals.”) A counterargument is appropriate and necessary.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 states that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex....