SVJI Staff: Meet Fatima!
Happy Wednesday! I’ve been working on the Rural Realities Blogs since I arrived at MNCASA a year ago, but I haven’t taken the opportunity to introduce myself until now.
My name is Fatima Jayoma (she/her/hers). I am one of your technical assistance providers at the Sexual Violence Justice Institute at MNCASA. I started working at the coalition in May of 2020. As a Rural Projects Coordinator, I provide training and technical assistance to rural communities working to improve the response to sexual violence. I work with rural SARTs and state/territory-level leaders/TA providers.
I’ve been involved in the anti-violence movement for six years. Before joining SVJI at MNCASA, I worked across Eastern Iowa as an advocate and prevention educator. I started doing this work in 2015 at Monsoon Asians and Pacific Islanders in Solidarity. I was a mobile multilingual advocate, providing direct services support (counseling, housing, legal, healthcare/medical advocacy, and immigration assistance) to Asian and Pacific Islander victims/survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. More recently, I was the Community Prevention Education Coordinator at the Rape Victim Advocacy Program, where I developed and facilitated community prevention programming in rural and urban areas. I worked primarily with youth and LGBTQ survivors of color. Although I am not working in prevention, the intersectional approach to sexual violence prevention is a large interest area of mine.
My educational background is in social work and gender, women’s, and sexuality studies. In 2018, I earned my Master’s in Social Work, with a concentration in Integrated Practice, from the University of Iowa. During graduate school, my research interest was learning about secondary traumatic stress symptoms experienced by trauma responders. As a result, my graduate research project explored the relationship between the impacts of secondary exposure to intimate partner violence and perceived social support among advocates – in other words, the ways in which a stronger workplace community can alleviate symptoms of burnout. Additionally, I was a Graduate Assistant in the Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies Department, where I supervised and co-facilitated healthy relationships group discussions with people who were incarcerated.
I hope for communities that are rooted in care and a culture in which the work we do is no longer necessary. Until then, I am committed to working with rural communities on creating a victim/survivor-centered, trauma-informed, and collaborative response to sexual violence. I am happy to be one of your TA providers! If you have any questions or want to say hello, don’t hesitate to email me at fjayoma@mncasa.org or call 651-288-7448.
On next week’s blog, you’ll get to know my coworker, Miranda!
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Read about the other SVJI staff: Nigel.