Kelsey starts the conversation about sexual violence prevention, Utah Keynote Presenter: Kelsey Cowley, Vice President Self-Advocates of Indiana Keynote Conference keynote: Disability Seminar, Salt Lake City, Utah, Date: May 17, 2019
Kelsey Cowley is the author of the Self Advocacy Resource and Technical Assistance Center (SARTAC) toolkit “Starting the Conversation: Addressing Sexual Violence within the Disability Community through Advocacy, Education, and System Change” and she was invited to be the keynote speaker for a disability seminar in Salt Lake City, Utah. The organizers reached out to Kelsey after hearing about her internship with SARTAC in Michelle Fischer’s podcast “A View into Kelsey Cowley’s Fellowship on Sexual Abuse, Violence, and Prevention” (click to listen/watch the episode.) Kelsey is an activist survivor of childhood sexual violence and is passionate about working to gain equal rights for people with disabilities and to end sexual violence for people with disabilities.
Kelsey’s work offers inclusion to the field of violence prevention and intervention, which has largely been shaped by programs and services for neurotypical “able-bodied” people. The toolkit Kelsey worked for over a year on offers culturally competent sexual violence resources that are for AND BY people with disabilities. “Starting the Conversation” expands the availability of data currently available related to risk and protective factors for sexual violence perpetration and victimization for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. One additional new direction offered to the field of sexual violence prevention is Kelsey’s focus in solutions on community level change by offering ideas about how to advocate for systems change at the local and state levels.
Credit
Post written by Cierra Olivia Thomas Williams, Prevention Specialist at Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Kelsey Cowley, Disability Consultant, at Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence