By David Holthaus – Courier contributor
Oct 25, 2018
Women Helping Women, the region’s leading advocate for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, is launching a workplace program that can provide employers with a toolkit and support for preventing workplace incidents and for assisting employees who are victims of abuse.
Kristin Smith-Shrimplin
Kristin Smith-Shrimplin is the president and CEO of Women Helping Women.
Women Helping Women strongly advocates that community leaders speak up for survivors and speak out against domestic violence and sexual assault. On Friday, April 28, the Cincinnati Bengals drafted Joe Mixon to become a new member of their team. As the leading regional agency in serving nearly 7,000 survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault per year, Women Helping Women advocates that the Bengals, as well as any other Cincinnati corporation, take a strong stance against domestic violence and sexual assault.
We expect businesses in our great city, and this includes sports teams, to place a high value on speaking out against both domestic violence and sexual assault. Athletes are recruited and hired for their skills and talent both on and off the field. We need our beloved home teams to hire positive role models and champions for our community, and this means that champions do not commit violence against women.
Violence against women and girls is a crime and a public health epidemic. Our area has already seen far too many domestic violence assaults as well as domestic violence homicides this year. While Women Helping Women is constantly working at capacity as it serves nearly 7,000 survivors a year, we need all members of our vital community to join us and to stand up for survivors. No one deserves to be abused or assaulted.
Read more: Mike Brown: We took a risk on Mixon
Misguided decision lets Mixon off the hook
No shortage of opinions on Mixon
Letters: For Bengals, Mixon draft is business as usual
Women Helping Women encourages the Brown family, Marvin Lewis and all others in the Cincinnati Bengals administration, as well as all influential leaders in our great city to use their power to shape a winning culture, both on and off the field. We expect that franchises and leaders with such power to represent our city and to encourage a culture that reflects our Cincinnati values.
The Bengals have an opportunity to send a message to their fans. There is an opportunity to teach our children about character-building, team work, and respect – both on and off the field. There is an opportunity to message to young athletes at our high schools and on college campuses what we expect in a champion. We expect players to lead by example.
Violence holds no honor and should hold no position on a team. Violence is already too rampant where 1 in 3 women experiences physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Our community deserves better.
Corporations, sports teams, policymakers and consumers have a powerful opportunity to promote community social responsibility in our region. Women Helping Women advocates that we all operate from the same playbook, working together as a team to combat gender-based violence and to promote a safe and thriving community.
By M.B. Reilly Email M.B. (513) 556-1824
In working to continually find better ways to prevent and respond to cases of sexual harassment, assault and misconduct, the University of Cincinnati is adding to the range of options it already offers in the form of advocacy, training, prevention and resources related to
In an agreement between UCs Division of Student Affairs and Women Helping Women (WHW), the community organization is providing two full-time, on-campus, confidential advocates to provide comprehensive support to those who have or are experiencing (or have witnessed) gender-based violence, such as sexual assault, domestic violence or stalking.
These advocates will provide confidential services that are focused on the survivor and include individual crisis intervention, hospital accompaniment, campus reporting assistance, accompaniment through Title IX and law enforcement or legal processes, assistance with campus-based accommodations, referrals for health and wellness services, and assistance with interim measures. While primarily focused on serving all students, the advocate will also be available to campus faculty and staff as well.
In addition to these full-time, on-campus advocates, the Women Helping Women hotline is available 24/7 at
513-381-5610
the WHW hotline.
Our new advocates, to be dedicated to serving the campus community, will provide confidential support for students. We believe survivors, and we support survivors. The advocate’s role is to listen to the survivor, outline options, link survivors to services that they want and to focus on empowerment,” said Kristin Smith Shrimplin, president and CEO of WHW.
According to Debra Merchant, vice president of UCs Division of Student Affairs, students need a variety of support options, and this new partnership with WHW provides another confidential support on campus, in the same way that there are counselors in UCs Counseling and Psychological Services who specifically provide assistance to survivors of sexual assault or harassment.
She stated, this adds to what we can provide to students. Some of the support is what we call confidential (like that offered by a counselor or this advocate). Some of it is what we call non-confidential or of public record, like going to UCPD. In order to provide the best service, its important to provide these confidential options as well.
Other Title IX News:
By M.B. Reilly Email M.B.. (513) 556-1824
In working to continually find better ways to prevent and respond to cases of sexual harassment, assault and misconduct, the University of Cincinnati is adding to the range of options it already offers in the form of advocacy, training, prevention and resources related to
In a new agreement between UCs Division of Student Affairs and Women Helping Women (WHW), the community organization will provide an on-call, confidential campus advocate/response to provide comprehensive support to those who have or are experiencing (or have witnessed) gender-based violence, such as sexual assault, domestic violence or stalking. That 24/7 on-call service begins this week, and will be available to all students, not just women. The service will also be available to all faculty and staff.
WHW will provide confidential services that are focused on the survivor and include individual crisis intervention, hospital accompaniment, campus reporting assistance, accompany students through Title IX and law enforcement or legal processes, assist with campus-based accommodations, provide referrals for health and wellness services, and assist survivors who seek interim measures. Again, while primarily focused on serving students, the advocate will also be available to campus faculty and staff as well.
Our new advocate, to be dedicated to serving the campus community, will provide confidential support for students. We believe survivors, and we support survivors. The advocate’s role is to listen to the survivor, outline options, link survivors to services that they want and to focus on empowerment,” said Kristin Smith Shrimplin, president and CEO of WHW.
According to Debra Merchant, vice president of UCs Division of Student Affairs, students need a variety of support options, and this new partnership with WHW provides another confidential support on campus, in the same way that there are counselors in UCs Counseling and Psychological Services who specifically provide assistance to survivors of sexual assault or harassment.
She stated, this adds to what we can provide to students. Some of the support is what we call confidential (like that offered by a counselor or this advocate). Some of it is what we call non-confidential or of public record, like going to UCPD. In order to provide the best service, it’s important to provide these confidential options as well.
The main responsibilities of the on-call campus advocate are as follows:
Additional Contacts
John Bach | Director of Executive Communications | Marketing + Communications [email protected] | 513-556-2019
‘We have to really give men a voice’
Em Joy, Women Helping Women’s school and community educator, created this placement with the help of Hali Nacdimen, an industrial designer with downtown-based Kaleidoscope, as part of the Studio C program.
By: Lucy May
CINCINNATI — A local nonprofit organization is hoping a carefully designed placemat in the right Greater Cincinnati restaurants could help put a stop to violence against women and girls.
The placemat is covered in “conversation starters” to encourage mealtime conversations between dads and sons, uncles and nephews or other pairs of men and boys. The goal is to get them talking about their own emotional needs and how to respect women.
The idea was born out of Women Helping Women‘s participation in Studio C, a 12-week initiative funded by United Way of Greater Cincinnati that helps nonprofit organizations find new, creative solutions to especially difficult problems.
Before you dismiss the placemat strategy, consider this: Kristin Smith Shrimplin, the CEO of Women Helping Women, has seen it work.
She took her two nephews — ages 12 and 9 — to dinner at LaRosa’s earlier this summer. As they were drawing pictures on a piece of butcher paper that the restaurant provided, she started using some of the conversation starters she knew were on the placemat prototype.
“My nephews are obstinate. They think ‘auntie’ is too emotional,” she said. “But I’m not kidding. We talked about — in appropriate language — what consent means. What inappropriate touching means and if that ever happens, what they’re to do. We talked about how the 12-year-old hasn’t had his first kiss yet, what that’s like and how you have to ask. We talked about gun violence and if there’s a gun in a friend’s home, what they’re to do. We talked about cigarettes, drugs and alcohol.”
Shrimplin talked with her nephews about important things in a non-threatening way, all while sharing a meal and drawing on paper.
“They talked about it, they handled it, they were really leaning into the conversation,” she said. “That just told me, if we could really roll out this concept, there could be some really neat organic things that happen in those moments.”
Hali Nacdimen, an industrial designer with downtown-based Kaleidoscope, sent initial designs for the placemat for Women Helping Women after spending more than an hour with Shrimplin and her staff to understand their mission and what they had learned about empowering men to help end gender-based violence. Em Joy, the nonprofit’s school and community educator, created the prototype.
Women Helping Women’s goal is to partner with an iconic Cincinnati restaurant chain — such as Skyline, LaRosa’s or Frisch’s — to get the placemats on tables across the region, Shrimplin said.
Giving Men A Voice
The placemat idea was one of several that came out of the Eureka moment that Shrimplin and her staff had during their Studio C experience.
During the 12-week program, facilitators from Design Impact helped Women Helping Women and the other participating nonprofit organizations determine what “wicked problem” each was trying to solve and then helped them boil it down to its most simple form.
“Our wicked problem was we wanted to end gender-based violence by men being the leaders in the movement to address it,” Shrimplin said. “It’s not about men just being engaged. It’s really about men being empowered.”
For years, Women Helping Women knew that involving men was an important part of ending domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. But the Studio C process helped the organization expand its thinking about how to approach men and help them get involved.
“Studio C helped us realize we have to really give men a voice,” said Caitlin Burke, Women Helping Women’s prevention coordinator. “We were assuming they had a voice and weren’t using it for this issue.”
The program’s design thinking approach encouraged the organization to question its assumptions about men and to interview men to find out what they really thought about Women Helping Women’s work and mission.
“What I started to realize is men haven’t been really given the opportunity — starting back in boyhood — to talk about their vulnerability in a safe way,” Shrimplin said. “How, by the time they’re 18 or 20 years old, can we expect them to speak out against violence against women and girls when they couldn’t even speak out about their own emotional needs?”
That realization pushed Shrimplin and her staff to find more ways to invest in men, she said.
“We thought maybe what we need to do is invest in men and invest in their vulnerability and investing in creating a space where it is safe for them to be vulnerable,” she said.
The goal is to help men see strength in their vulnerability, not weakness.
“When they feel strong in doing that, they can then speak out,” she said.
It might sound counterintuitive for Women Helping Women to start focusing on men, but that kind of solution isn’t unusual for Studio C.
Challenging Assumptions
The program uses design thinking, a strategy that is common in the business world but less common among nonprofits, said Tamaya Dennard, a social and civic innovation specialist with Design Impact.
“A lot of times it’s really similar to the concepts of creative problem-solving,” said Ramsay Ford, a co-founder of Studio C. “You start with really focusing on who is going to be using a product or service, who is the community that’s involved in this solution or this program and getting a deep understanding of who they are, what their motivations are and how they’re involved.”
This is the third year that United Way has been funding Studio C, and it’s not uncommon for the process to challenge the assumptions of the nonprofit organizations that participate, said Mike Baker, director of community impact for United Way of Greater Cincinnati.
The first year of the Studio C program, for example, the Housing Authority of Covington and Northern Kentucky Head Start partnered to try to find a way to get more kids from the City Heights housing complex enrolled in preschool.
Leaders of both organizations believed that parents weren’t enrolling their kids because they didn’t have good transportation from City Heights to the locations where Head Start classes were held.
Studio C challenged them to talk with parents to find out if the problem really was transportation, Baker said.
“They talked to 10 to 15 families. And all of them said transportation was an issue, but it wasn’t the top issue,” he said. “Most often the top issue was ‘my kid is too little to go to school’ or ‘they’re going to learn everything they need to know in kindergarten.'”
The Housing Authority of Covington and Northern Kentucky Head Start realized they needed to educate parents about what good preschool was — that it wouldn’t require their squirmy toddlers to sit still at a desk all day.
After they helped parents understand that the two organizations tripled enrollment in Head Start in just a month’s time.
“That’s the success for us,” Baker said. “If we can drive more of that planning — moving past what we all think we know about the people we’re trying to help and more diving in and really developing solutions that are much more tangible to the real issue.”
For Women Helping Women, the 12-week program made a huge difference, Shrimplin said. Now it’s just a matter of getting those placemats in local restaurants.
For more information about Women Helping Women, click here.
For more information about Studio C, click here. Studio C is accepting applications through Aug. 11 for its next session. Meetings for that session will start Sept. 1. To apply, click here.
Lucy May writes about the people, places and issues that define our region – to celebrate what makes the Tri-State great and also shine a spotlight on issues we need to address. Childhood poverty is an important focus for her and for WCPO. To read more stories about childhood poverty, to go www.wcpo.com/poverty.
To read more stories by Lucy, go to www.wcpo.com/may. To reach her, email [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @LucyMayCincy.
Kristin Smith Shrimplin is the president and CEO of Women Helping Women, an agency that serves all survivors of sexual assault, stalking and domestic violence in Hamilton and Butler counties.
The story about a Stanford University student who committed sexual assault caught national and local attention. But this is not a new narrative. This is a story that is very worn out. As the leader of Women Helping Women, I am unapologetically angry at the repetitive nature of this story. It’s 2016, and our nation, our communities and our campuses remain besieged by rape culture. This is an epidemic, and it is time for radical change.
Let’s start by changing the narrative. Media: Please tell us the stories of all of the actions and the words of the male friends of Brock Turner who went to the party with him. Tell us about how they stepped in at every point that he and any other individual targeted a woman for domination and control. Tell us about what Stanford University taught Brock Turner and all of its students about consent culture during first-year orientation. Tell us what Brock Turner’s father told him as a young man going off to college about how to respect women’s autonomy. Tell us what the teachers taught Brock Turner in middle and high school on prevention of sexual violence. Tell us what Brock Turner’s swim coach taught him when he was 8 years old about character, integrity and being a true champion.
Brock Turner (right) makes his way into the Santa Clara Superior Courthouse in Palo Alto, California, on June 2. He received a six-month jail sentence for raping a young woman.
Tell us. We will listen. But no one can tell us those stories because no one can find those headlines. The headlines can’t be reported because that’s not what happened that night or at all the points in time before that night. This is what is happening:
Let’s change the narrative by changing what we tell women and girls. Men: Be brave and talk to your sons, grandsons, nephews and friends about sexual assault, rape and consent culture. Promote prevention. Listen to the women and girls in your life. When women and girls tell you their stories, stand beside them with full support and model the Stanford survivor’s powerful words:
“… to girls everywhere, I am with you. On nights when you feel alone, I am with you. When people doubt you or dismiss you, I am with you… you are important, unquestionably, you are untouchable, you are beautiful, you are to be valued, respected, undeniably, every minute of every day, you are powerful, and nobody can take that away from you. To girls everywhere, I am with you…”
Let’s change the narrative and unite as a community to combat this violence. This public health epidemic demands attention as if it were toxic, lead-laden water in our public pipelines. Policymakers, institutions, universities, and community members: Let’s work together to dismantle immaterial language that describes a rapist. Individuals who commit sexual violence make a decision to commit a crime to victimize and violate another individual. It is immaterial that a rapist is an athlete with a promising swimming career who can no longer enjoy a steak because of the crime he committed. These irrelevant words serve as a manufactured smokescreen that takes us away from the real story.
The real story is that the rape culture violates our community’s ability to thrive. WHW trustees, advocates, prevention educators, volunteers and survivors call for a “forever cure” to this public health crisis. All leaders, supporters and major institutions must intensely use their influence and resources to shine a light on a crime that hides in the dark behind dumpsters. Humans are not trash.
We can no longer dismiss this issue as merely a “women’s issue.” This is a human rights issue in which humans are stripped of their autonomy and self-agency of their very own bodies. Sexual assault is a crime – a debilitating, soul-stripping crime. And now is the time to change it all: Change the media’s framing of the narrative. Change the judicial institutions’ response. Change patriarchy. Change oppression. Change apathy. Change the system.
WHW believes in the radical notion that all of our community members deserve to thrive in a culture of accountability, prevention and consent. Let’s all be “upstanders” and build that community together to support survivors and promote prevention.
