Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center

CMSAC proposes to expand and enhance its primary prevention programming focused on male and LGBTQIA+ identifying community members across Stearns, Benton, Sherburne, and Wright counties. Prevention programming will emphasize the promotion of healthy relationships, affirmative consent, bystander intervention, and respect for diverse identities, while addressing systemic factors such as homophobia, transphobia, and rigid gender expectations that contribute to violence. Building on CMSAC’s long history of school-based and community-based prevention education, this project will enhance curriculum, strengthen access to prevention education, and increase community-level engagement to prevent sexual violence within populations that often face heightened stigma and limited culturally responsive resources.

Despite growth in service utilization in CMSAC’s four-county service area, there remains an ongoing need to increase awareness of the prevalence of sexual violence and to strengthen community knowledge about how to prevent the victimization of male-identifying and LGBTQIA+ community members. Increased awareness and education are critical to reducing victim-blaming attitudes and improving access to support. This project responds directly to longstanding gaps in primary prevention efforts reaching male and LGBTQIA+ community groups that are historically underrepresented in prevention initiatives and disproportionately impacted by harmful norms, stigma, and exclusion.

For more information, please contact:

• Andrew Kaehler, Executive Director
• Bri Cornell, Prevention Specialist