The following summary of recent and future YHTP activities was presented at the agency’s Board of Directors meeting, held August 13, 2019.
TDOC
- YHTP continues its two weekly classes at the Tennessee Prison for Women.
VOCA
- YHTP is awaiting final word on a proposed VOCA grant to develop extensive statewide programming and messaging on domestic violence, collaborating with Family Justice Centers throughout the state. In preparation for anticipated rollout, I attended the 14th Annual Conference on Crimes against Women last month in Dallas (courtesy of a Metro grant) and found some wonderful information we can build into the program.
- We are actively reaching out to local colleges, schools, or church groups to schedule sessions on domestic violence, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and sex trafficking in line with the VOCA grant. If you know of a potentially interested group or agency, please phone or e-mail Vladimir at (615) 292-7027 or info@yhtp.org.
Children’s Memory Garden
- Research continues on the children memorialized by the project. Two local academics—Maury Nation at Vanderbilt and Leon Allgood at MTSU—have volunteered to make the Garden a research project for their students, with each student assigned four or five children each.
- The next step is taking the information gained from these cases to identify patterns of youth violence and points of intervention. While we do not have information on all the children due to the passage of time and lack of news coverage, even information on 80% of the children will suffice for generating conclusions.
- Updates dates of construction will be provided as these become available.
Powerfully Thankful
- The committee will meet next week. Davidson County Clerk Brenda Wynn has agreed to serve as chair.
- We are waiting for confirmation on talent being scouted, and a sponsorship flyer is in development.
Junior League of Nashville
- The Junior League grant is providing a translation of the sex trafficking resource guide to Mandarin Chinese.
- Meanwhile, our JLN contacts continue to take the lead in presenting the trafficking presentation to school-age children.
Facilitator and Training Update
- YHTP has secured a three-year VOCA grant for statewide development of information and curriculum for businesses on dealing with domestic violence in the workplace.
- We currently have six volunteer facilitators available to lead presentations (given sufficient notice) for presentations across Middle Tennessee.
Opportunity Now
- This year’s Opportunity Now students were Selah Russell from Cane Ridge High School and Selvia Wagih, a recent graduate of STEM Prep and a rising freshman at MTSU.Their primary project during their internship was research on Internet safety to build a working copy of a resource guide. Thanks again to HCA for providing this opportunity.
Miscellany
- YHTP staged two recent exhibits at community events: the Red Sand Project art event on July 31 and the MNPS Back-to-School Bash on August 3.
- We continue to seek funding to build an e-learning platform.
- We continue to explore options for survivors to record and film their stories so their message can reach more people without asking them to revisit their pain.