PreventConnect

Part 2 of our conversation with Community Leader Rebeca Melendez closes out our 20th Anniversary Season! If you haven’t listened to Part 1, we highly recommend that you listen to the episode first to hear an excerpt from Rebeca’s plenary speech at the 2025 National Sexual Assault Conference®. In Part 2, Rebeca sits down with Ashleigh Klein-Jimenez to talk about navigating belonging, finding community, and the impact of building programs with the community, not for the community, at the East Los Angeles Women’s Center (ELAWC).Listen in as they explore the possibilities of prevention when we listen to what communities have and what they may need. 

In our second excerpt episode for our 20th Anniversary Season, Rebeca Melendez, Associate Director of the East Los Angeles Women’s Center (ELAWC), shares her plenary speech from the 2025 National Sexual Assault Conference® (NSAC)!Join the 1,600+ participants who attended NSAC 2025 and listen to Rebeca’s plenary on the importance of culture and working with and for your community to prevent violence.

Welcome back to PreventConnect's 20th anniversary year and our ongoing reflection on Billie Weiss’s influence on public health and prevention. If you haven’t listened to Billie’s excerpts from a not-yet-released conversation with VALOR’s Leah Aldridge and David S. Lee, check out “Prevention Then and Now: Reflections from Long-Time Practitioners with Billie Weiss.”In this follow-up episode, Ashleigh Kleigh-Jimenez sits down with David S. Lee to discuss Billie’s influence on preventing violence, working with communities, and a public health approach to prevention. David and Ashleigh also imagine the future of prevention, and its connection to both science and art.

Welcome to the 20th Anniversary of PreventConnect!Today’s episode is an excerpt from a not-yet-released conversation between VALOR’s Leah Aldridge and David S. Lee, and one of their mentors, Billie Weiss. Billie’s research, inclusion of community, and connecting violence prevention to public health are foundational parts of modern prevention practices.In these excerpts, Billie, Leah, and David discuss the emergence of epidemiology and Billie’s start in public health and prevention.

Welcome to the 20th Anniversary of PreventConnect! In this episode, Josef Canaria, Preventionist and Manager of Programs & Strategic Initiatives at Act To Change, shares his 2025 National Sexual Assault Conference® (NSAC) keynote speech.Join the 1,600+ participants who attended NSAC 2025 and listen to Josef’s plenary on the messiness of prevention and the importance of community to end gender-based violence!

Welcome back to PreventConnect and episode 2 of Ashleigh and Josef Canaria discussing the messy nature of preventing gender-based violence. If you haven’t listened to Part 1, we highly recommend that you listen to the episode first to hear Josef’s keynote speech from the 2025 National Sexual Assault Conference®. In Part 2, Josef and Ashleigh reflect on Josef’s plenary and the hopes that preventionists have for the future of prevention. The conversation uncovers a common experience that many preventionists experience, as well as the need for self-care, understanding, and community in the work to end gender-based violence.

Welcome to the 20th Anniversary of PreventConnect! Today, Ashleigh Klein-Jimenez sits down with Alex Pecoraro, the Prevention Strategist at the Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. Although Alex proclaims she is still “new,” she started her journey in prevention work as a peer educator in college, taking the skills and topics she learned into her local direct service advocacy and, now, coalition-level work. Alex and Ashleigh discuss trauma-informed prevention, tailoring strategies to community realities, and how coalitions can support local communities and leadership. Listen in to the first half of Alex’s two-part episode!

Welcome back to PreventConnect and Part 2 of Alex Pecoraro and Ashleigh sitting down to talk about prevention with a fresh perspective.If you haven’t listened to Part 1, we highly recommend that you listen to the episode first. Alex shares how she started learning prevention skills as a peer educator, and key differences between direct service and coalition-level prevention work. In Part 2, Alex shares how she approaches big ideas and turns them into practice, including the importance of reaching out when work feels heavy. Alex and Ashleigh’s conversation highlights the importance of community and long-term thinking in primary prevention. 

Welcome to Part 2 of Tonjie Reese sitting down with Ashleigh Klein-Jimenez for PreventConnect!If you haven’t listened to Part 1, we highly recommend that you listen to the episode first. Tonjie shared how she came to prevention as a high school student and the importance of meeting youth where they are to increase connections.Their conversation picks up with Tonjie sharing how their understanding of prevention has shifted over time due to her ability to consider the nuances and needs of young people she connects with. Tonjie and Ashleigh talk about the importance of language and family when it comes to prevention, centering care and humanity, and uplifting younger people as they start their journey in prevention work.   You can find Tonjie at:Eleven24.orgInstagram: @_eleven24Facebook: Eleven24 Inc.tonjie@1124.org info@1124.org

Welcome to the 20th Anniversary of PreventConnect! Today, Tonjie Reese sits down with PreventConnect’s Ashleigh Klein-Jimenez. Tonjie was drawn to harm prevention serendipitously through a theater class she enrolled in during high school and is now the founder of Eleven24, a program that provides training and education to decrease violence.Listen in as Tonjie and Ashleigh talk about how she came into prevention work through theater, meeting youth where they are, and the power of storytelling to increase violence prevention in the first half of a two-part episode!You can find Tonjie at:Eleven24.orgInstagram: @_eleven24Facebook: Eleven24 Inc.tonjie@1124.org info@1124.org

Welcome to part two of Ashleigh Klein-Jimenez’s conversation with Jody Sanborn!If you haven’t listened to part one, we highly suggest listening to the episode first. Jody shared how she first stepped into prevention work, what keeps her committed, and what it takes to do prevention well in rural communities.This episode picks up the conversation with a focus on the Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) program, which has shaped and supported prevention efforts across the country for decades. We also talk about how Jody’s own understanding of prevention has changed—how she’s moved from thinking of prevention as education to seeing it as cultural transformation.

Welcome to the first episode celebrating 20 years of PreventConnect! In this conversation, host Ashleigh Klein-Jimenez is joined by Jody Sanborn. Jody has been in the movement to prevent and end sexual violence for over 20 years. Currently, she is the Training and Technical Assistance Director with the Wyoming Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, where she has been for the last 15 years.While her résumé is impressive, what stands out most is her deep, relational approach to prevention—especially in rural communities, where she’s spent her entire life.

PreventConnect turned 20 this year!That’s two decades of advancing prevention and working toward a world free from sexual and intimate partner violence -- together. Join us as host Ashleigh Klein-Jimenez sits down with researchers, practitioners, and community leaders who are showing us what prevention looks like in action.Welcome to the 20th anniversary season of PreventConnect.

Dear Prevention Communtiy,We Love you. And we are so honored to do this work with you. Sincerely,The PreventConnect team.

When we experience collective hard times, where do we turn for hope and healing? In this episode of PreventConnect, Janaé sits down with Brooklyn Arizmendi, a Program Services Coordinator at Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, to explore the resilience and strength of marginalized communities, particularly queer individuals, in the face of adversity. Brooklyn, a queer, indigenous Chicana woman, shares about her journey into violence prevention and the intersections of queerness and community resilience. Brooklyn and Janae discuss the importance of authenticity, the need for systemic change, and the role of queer people in leading a more inclusive and connected support environment for all people.While this conversation doesn't shy away from the adversity queer people face, the focus is on the connection, joy, and strength that comes from being queer and embodying the bravery to be different - in whatever shape that may take. Resources mentioned in this podcast: Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence Institutionalizing LGBTQIA+ Justice in Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence Prevention: Centering Trans Inclusion as a value and practice Institutionalizing LGBTQ+ Justice in Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence Prevention: Culturally specific approaches in rural queer communities Institutionalizing LGBTQIA+ Justice in Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence Prevention: Creating Opportunities through a Statewide Action Plan Queer History from the Trevor Project

Today sexual and intimate partner violence prevention programs are so distinguished from advocacy and intervention, prevention is its own field and movement.As prevention continues to grow and occupy its own space, a growing number of preventionists and advocates have started to ask at what point does our separation go from helping us, to potentially holding us back?" Different as we may be. we often have more in common than we realize. And it is in those commonalities that we find our through lines and our strengthFor this episode of PreventConnect, we hear from two long-time friends in the anti-violence movement. Ashleigh Klein Jimenez. who you know as the other face of PreventConnect and Giovanna Martinez, Associate Director of Domestic Violence Programs at the YWCA San Gabriel Valley. Ashleigh and Gio could not be doing more different work, but their decades-long friendship and camaraderie goes back to their first jobs in the movement,  doing local community engagement and advocacy work in southern California.We're exploring the role healing plays in primary prevention and the connections that often get lost in our movement, all through the lens of a long-lasting friendship. Resources mentioned in this episode:Domestic Violence Awareness Month 2024: Heal, Hold and CenterDVAM 2024 Instagram Live: Honoring Advocates in our LivesDVAM 2024 Linkedin Live: Creating Safe Spaces for Older Adult SurvivorsHealing: A Key Piece to Preventing Domestic Violence for Future GenerationsYWCA San Gabriel ValleyHousing and Prevention Podcast

Welcome to “DELTA Reflections: Shaping the Future of IPV Prevention,” a PreventConnect mini-series podcast that delves into the transformative journey of the DELTA project, a groundbreaking initiative by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aimed at preventing intimate partner violence (IPV). Over the course of the episodes, we will explore the rich history, innovative approaches, and profound impact of DELTA through the voices of those who have been instrumental in its success.  In this episode, we are sitting down with two DELTA recipients from the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence (RICADV) - Lucy Rios, the Executive Director, and Cynthia Roberts, the Evaluator for RICADV.  As longtime recipients, Lucy and Cynthia have played pivotal roles in implementing and evaluating primary prevention strategies. This conversation explores how their personal and professional lives have grown along with DELTA, and how they infuse values learned from the DELTA project into their organization. Resources mentioned in this episode: Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic ViolenceRICADV Data DashboardVoices of Change Program  10 Men ProgramListen to DELTA Reflections Part 1Listen to DELTA Reflections Part 2

At the core of it all, under all of our evidence, terminology and funding structures: love is the key to ending sexual and intimate partner violence.  In a movement made almost entirely of survivors, we know healthy love will heal our communities and create a world free of violence. The question that remains is "How do we bring love into our-day-to-day, when so much about how our culture and work structures operate challenge the idea of radical love in and of itself?"Audrey Jordan and Shiree Teng recently came together to speak to our movement about radical love, love of self, of others and of community in a recent PreventConnect Web Conference: Measuring Love. The conversation revealed just how challenging it can be for preventionists to see love in their program structures and outcomes.For this episode of PreventConnect, I got to chat with two people I really admire in this field: Rosá Beltre, who leads the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence and Ashleigh-Klein-Jimenez, Director of Prevention at VALOR in California.  Rosá and Ashleigh are both women who cultivate love, while remaining fierce leaders in their work to end violence.  We’re talking about where love comes into our work, why it’s challenging for us to talk about, and what it looks like in prevention work.Resources mentioned in this Podcast:Measuring Love in the Journey to End Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence Part 1Measuring Love in the Journey to End Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence Part 2Measuring Love in the Journey to End Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence Part 3 (Publishes Thursday, May 30.) Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence Valor.Us Homeboy IndustriesHealth Equity in Practice Part 2: Why anti-racism is an integral part of sexual violence prevention

https://youtu.be/HdSpJ0PCcRk People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities experience sexual and domestic violence at drastically higher rates , but despite how many survivors in our movement are in the disability community, they are rarely involved in our work to end violence… or compensated for their contributions when they are. Despite immense barriers, self-advocates in the disability community are making huge steps to advocate for disability justice in prevention and advocacy spaces. You’re listening to a special 2-part episode of PreventConnect, where we are pulling together some of the most impactful keynotes and interviews to come out of PreventConnect and VALOR around disability justice and inclusion, along with some new interviews about how staff are putting what we’ve learned into practice.For this installment, I interviewed my colleague and friend, Priscilla Klassen, who leads VALOR's Disability Rights and Inclusion Project, C.A. Leads. Priscilla was also at the forefront of accessibility efforts at the 2024 National Sexual Assault Conference.  Our conversation delves into systemic barriers to integrating Disability Justice into organizational frameworks, learning through practice and how she approaches Disability Rights and Justice work.To download a transcript of this episode, click here.. Resources mentioned in this podcast:Disability Justice Highlight Reel Part 1Sins Invalid

Believing in a world free of sexual and intimate partner violence means daring to imagine what communities would look like of everyone had equal access to health, safety and livelihood.  When we allow ourselves to imagine “what if,” we create the stepping stones to get us there. For Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center is calling on people to think about what their communities could be, and take steps to get there. In a special bonus podcast episode, taken from our Instagram live event earlier this month, we spoke with NSVRC staff Jayla Murdock and Mo Lewis to talk about their national campaign: Building Connected Communities, which leverages Health Equity Frameworks to impact whole communities in the work to end sexual violence.Because this is a recording from an Instagram LiveStream, there may be moments where audio cuts out or gets spotty. You can find the video stream with captions at our Instagram, and follow-along with the transcript to this episode.