About this Event
Deepen Your Understanding. Strengthen Your Practice.
How can social workers and helping professionals provide more culturally responsive, trauma-informed support to Black women who have experienced sexual assault and gender-based violence?
Join SASHA Center for an immersive, in-person professional training grounded in lived experience, history, culturally specific interventions and trauma-informed care.
Part of SASHA Center’s Culture Cures and History Heals programming, this training reflects a core principle behind the organization’s work: understanding history and culture is essential to understanding lived experience and providing meaningful, responsive support.
Led by Kalimah Johnson, LMSW, ACSW, LCSW, SASHA Center Founder and CEO and a nationally recognized leader in culturally specific sexual assault advocacy, the training draws from SASHA Center’s 16 years of work centering the lived experiences of Black women and girls.
This is more than an introduction to cultural awareness. Participants will examine historical and cultural experiences that continue to shape how Black women experience sexual violence, seek support and interact with the systems intended to serve them. The training then connects that understanding to practical approaches social workers and other helping professionals can bring into their own work.
Bearing Witness: Understanding the History
The training begins with “Bearing Witness,” an exploration of the history of sexual violence against Black women in the United States.
Through historical records, writings, archival materials and documented experiences, participants will examine stories often left out of traditional conversations about sexual violence, including the story of Recy Taylor and Rosa Parks’ early advocacy on behalf of Black women who experienced sexual violence.
Understanding this history provides important context for examining the systems, cultural experiences and barriers that can influence an experiencer’s relationship with advocacy, services and healing.
From Understanding to Practice
Participants will move from historical context into culturally specific interventions, language, communication and trauma-informed care, exploring how professionals can better center the lived experiences of Black women in their work.
Topics include:
- The historical context of sexual violence against Black women in the United States
- Trauma-informed and culturally responsive care
- Culturally specific interventions and strategies
- Centering lived experience in social work, advocacy and human services
- Language, communication and African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
- Recognizing how assumptions and stereotypes about Black women can create barriers to being heard, understood and supported
- Black literature and scholarship that inform culturally specific approaches
- Practical strategies for working with Black experiencers of sexual assault and gender-based violence
Participants will also have opportunities to apply concepts from the training to real-world situations, strengthening their ability to recognize cultural context, communicate more effectively and provide informed, experiencer-centered support.
Meet the Presenters
Kalimah Johnson, LMSW, ACSW, LCSW
Founder and CEO, SASHA Center
Johnson is a nationally recognized advocate and leader in culturally specific sexual assault advocacy. Her work has helped advance culturally specific approaches to supporting Black experiencers of sexual assault.
Neefesha Marion, MSW
Program Specialist and MIHP Coordinator, Henry Ford Health
Marion is a social work consultant, expert trainer, group facilitator, and educator in the areas of sexual and domestic violence. Through her work with SASHA Center, she provides education, facilitates healing-centered spaces and advocates for individuals and communities impacted by violence. Her work is rooted in empowerment, education and creating spaces where people feel supported, heard and valued.
AeYanna Yett, MSW, Ph.D. Candidate
Facilitator, SASHA Center
A Ph.D. candidate at Wayne State University, Yett's research centers Black women's sexual pleasure, healing and health outcomes after violence, grounded in Black feminist thought. As a facilitator and trainer with the SASHA Center, she leads culturally specific trainings and holds space for Black experiencers of sexual violence. Her scholarship and SASHA Center work have led to national consulting roles, including as a subject matter expert with the National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community.
Who Should Attend?
This training is especially valuable for social workers throughout Southeast Michigan, as well as advocates, clinicians, behavioral health and human-services professionals, service providers, community leaders and others whose work brings them into contact with Black women and experiencers of gender-based violence.
You do not need to work specifically in sexual assault or domestic violence services to benefit. The training offers a culturally specific lens that can strengthen how professionals understand and serve marginalized communities across a range of social work and human-services settings.
Earn 4.5 Social Work CEUs
Social workers can earn 4.5 CEUs through this training, offered in collaboration with the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence.
Participants will also receive a certificate of completion, and lunch will be provided.
Event Details
Saturday, Oct. 17
Noon–5 p.m.
Avalon Healing Center
601 Bagley St., Detroit
Come ready to listen, examine, learn and leave with a deeper understanding and practical tools for providing culturally responsive, trauma-informed care.
Space is limited. Register today to reserve your spot.
Event venue & nearby stays
Avalon Healing Center, 601 Bagley Street, Detroit, United States
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