Amanda Nguyen on Safe Survivor Havens

Thank you Amanda Nguyen and Rise for this resource about Safe Survivor Havens. Those of us who work with girls and gender-expansive youth will be more prepared to support anyone who has experienced sexual assault.

When the latest CDC report on teen girls’ mental health came out, it showed an increase in sexual violence and forced sex happening to teen girls. Girls Leadership is working to create trauma-informed and healing-centered learning environments where girls can thrive. This report illuminates how now, more than ever, we need our girls to feel safe in schools.

According to Dr. Kathleen Ethier, director of CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, “Young people who feel connected in middle school and high school 20 years later have better mental health, are less likely to be perpetrators or victims of violence, are less likely to use substances and are less likely to attempt suicide. So school connectedness is a very powerful protective factor.” Girls and gender-expansive youth can’t feel connected if they don’t feel safe.

 

 

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