The Awareness Center, Inc. (International Jewish Coaltion Against Sexual Assault)

The Awareness Center closed. We operated from April 30, 1999 - April 30, 2014. This site is being provided for educational & historical purposes. We were the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault (JCASA); and were dedicated to ending sexual violence in Jewish communities globally. We did our best to operate as the make a wish foundation for Jewish survivors of sex crimes. In the past we offered a clearinghouse of information, resources, support and advocacy.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

About The Awareness Center

The Awareness Center Was Dedicated to Ending Sexual Violence
in Jewish Communities Internationally

The Awareness Center operated for fifteen years (April 30, 1999 - April 30, 2014). The information on this site is being provide for historical purposes only.

The history of the Jewish people is one filled with a series of traumatic experiences:

This includes one topic that up until now has been taboo to discuss: Sexual Violence (Incest, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Professional Sexual Misconduct, Sexual Harassment).

Contrary to what we might want to assume, sexual violence is not just a Gentile issue, but also a Jewish one.

Discussing the issue of sexual violence in Jewish communities seems to threaten the cultural perception of the wholesomeness of the Jewish family. However, the time has come to break the taboo and allow the Jewish Community to face reality and begin the healing journey. When referring to the Jewish Community we are including everyone: from the unaffiliated, Renewal, Reform, Reconstructionist, Traditional, and Conservative communities, to the Orthodox, “Charedi” and “Chasidic" communities.

The concept of The Awareness Center began in 1999 . We were incorporated in the state of Maryland as a nonprofit organization in 2003. We are dedicated to providing education, information, resources and advocacy to survivors of sexual violence, family members of survivors and sex offenders, religious leaders rabbis, and our communities globally.

The Awareness Center believes survivors of sexual violence should be given yellow ribbons to wear proudly.

Survivors of sexual violence (as adults and/or as a child) are just as deserving of a yellow ribbon as the men and women of our armed forces, who have been held captive as hostages or prisoners of war.

Survivors of sexual violence have been forced to learn how to survive, being held captive not by foreigners, but mostly by their own family members, teachers, camp counselors, coaches babysitters, rabbis, cantors or other trusted authority figures. For these reasons ALL survivors of sexual violence should be seen as heroes!

Clearinghouse: Resources & Information
Offering information and other resources on the topic of sexual violence in Jewish communities.

Speakers Bureau
Educational training programs on the topic of sexual violence to community groups, rabbis, teachers, parents, and survivor groups.

Development of Annual International Summit/Conference

Providing a forum for dialogue, education and healing between medical, mental health and legal professionals; religious leaders, teachers, parents and survivors.

Certification Program for Rabbis and other Jewish Community Leaders

Statistics:

Research shows that one out of every three to five women, and one out of ever five to seven men are sexually abused by the time they reach their eighteenth birthday.
Every two minutes a woman is raped (NCVS 2002).
One in every eight rape victims were males (NCVS 2002).
The most vulnerable age for a male child to be sexually abused/assaulted is age 4 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2000).
Approximately 60% of boys and 80% of girls who are sexually victimized are abused by someone known to the child or the child's family (Lieb,Quinsey, and Berliner, 1998).
It is estimated that children with disabilities are 4 to 10 times more vulnerable to sexual abuse than their non-disabled peers (NRC, 1992).
One in 33 youth received an aggressive sexual solicitation in the past year. This means a predator asked a young person to meet somewhere, called a young person on the phone, and/or sent the young person correspondence, money, or gifts through the U.S. Postal Service (USDOJ, 2001).
Approximately 95% of teenage prostitutes have been sexually abused (CCPCA, 1992).

Sex Offenders Statistics:

The typical child sex offender molests an average of 117 children, most of whom do not report the offense (National Institute of Mental Health, 1988).
About 60% of male survivors sampled, report at least one of their perpetrators to be female (Mendel, 1993).
About 95% of victims know their perpetrators (CCPCA, 1992).
Over a 25-year period, child molesters had a higher rate of re-offense than rapists: 52% versus 39%. (Prentky, Lee, Knight, and Cerce).

The Awareness Center's Mission Statement

The Awareness Center is closed. We operated for fifteen years (April 30, 1999 - April 30, 2014). The information on this site is being provide for educational and historical purposes only.

About US!

The Awareness Center is the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse and Assault (JCASA). We are dedicated to ending sex crimes in Jewish communities globally. We do our best to act like "the make a wish foundation" for Jewish survivors of sex crimes.

We are a non-profit / tax-exempt organization that supports the notion of free will and civil liberties. We are not affiliated with any religious or commercial organizations.

Our Mission:

The history of the Jewish People is one filled with a series of traumatic experiences. Included is one topic that up until now has been taboo to discuss: Sexual Victimization (incest, childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, clergy sexual abuse, professional sexual misconduct and sexual harassment).

Contrary to what we might want to assume sexual violence is not limited to the gentile population it is also a Jewish issue and one that needs to be addressed. In the United States one of every three to five women, and one out of every five to seven men have been sexually abused by the time they reach their eighteenth birthday. Unfortunately, due to the fact there has been little research on this issue in the Jewish Community we do not know how prevalent it is. Most mental health providers around the world who are based in Jewish Communities will admit that they have survivors (of sexual violence) of Jewish origins as part of their caseload.

One of the major problems in discussing the issue of sex crimes within Jewish Communities is that doing so threatens the cultural perception of the wholesomeness of the Jewish family. The time has come to break the taboo and allow the Jewish Community to face reality and to begin the healing journey. While this process is taking place we will also be able to compile valuable statistics on the prevalence of sexual violence in our community. It is important to note that when we refer to the Jewish Community we are including everyone from the unaffiliated, Jewish Renewal, Reform, Conservative, through the Orthodox, "Charedi" and "Chasidic" communities.

It may be surprising that, despite Israel's world-leading status in treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress, the study of sexual violence in Jewish Communities around the world is still in its infancy. For over a fifteen years our organization has been dedicated to creating The Awareness Center, Inc. "Our dream is to create an international organization to address and end the issue and ramifications of sexual victimization to both adults and children in Jewish Communities".

Our current goals include the continued development of our international data base/web page; continued growth of our international speakers bureau and the development of our educational certification program for rabbis, cantors and other Jewish community leaders.

The second phase goals include the development of self-help groups for Jewish survivors to be held in communities worldwide; and the development and implementation of our international conference on sexual violence. The third phase includes developing a healing/retreat center and on-going educational programming in Israel, the United States, and throughout the world. A long-term goal is to develop an international network of researchers.

The Awareness Center, Inc. is a tax exempt - nonprofit organization. We have an international board of directors and an advisory board made up of individuals from a variety of backgrounds all dedicated to ending sexual violence in Jewish Communities around the globe and providing help to survivors.

We are currently searching for funding for our certification program for rabbis, cantors and other religions leaders, our first International Conference, and the development of a healing retreat center. We also look forward to developing a research team, so that we can better serve Jewish communities around the world.

Our goal is to make the impossible dream, possible. But we can not do it alone. Please take the time now and become one of our financial supporters.

The Awareness Center was founded in 1999 and was incorporated as a non-profit by the internal revenue service in 2003.

Also see:

FAIR USE NOTICE

Some of the information on The Awareness Center's web pages may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.

For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml . If you wish to use copyrighted material from this update for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." –– Margaret Mead

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

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About The Awareness Center

The Awareness Center's Mission Statement