Okay, so now the good news is coming in bunches. To summarize:

I've become part of the Attorney General's steering committee to develop a "Victim Advocates' Academy" to train anyone who works with rape victims in a set of core skills. It will be a week-long training program in the summer. We are also going to develop new certification for any personnel working with rape victims, too, to create a uniform standard of service competence for advocates, counselors, etc. I'm only one of many people on the committee, but together we will get to custom-design services across the state.

I'll also get to help plan a series of trainings around Oklahoma throughout the year. My friend Jennifer and I get to be a team, planning "core skills trainings" for rape advocates and counselors, as well as trainings for nurses to become eligible to do medical exams for victims around the state. To begin, we are going to have a two-day summit with workers from around the state who are the current leaders of sexual assault crisis work, to discuss the emerging innovations in the work in order to form a specialized series of trainings. One of the things we ant to do is a set of four all-day trainings for mental health, in which we bring in an expert in trauma work to do specialized trainings. so far, though, we don't know who to select as the mental health expert trainer, so suggestions would be welcome!

As part of these projects, I'll get to go to Washington D.C. in January for meetings with other trainers to develop these programs.

Finally, one of our local Air Force bases has asked me if they can use "Resurrection After Rape" with their military rape victims, including taking pages of art and journals from the book to enlarge as posters during April (sexual assault awareness month) and place around the base. They also proposed working with me to develop a traveling display of "Survivors' Art" to inspire victims on Air Force bases, perhaps across the country. The pages they want to use would be the picture of original art and original writings.

I also have a new assistant, so there is someone positioned to join all of these programs at the ground level and learn diverse skills for victim's advocacy from start to finish. You can't buy an opportunity like that; I never had that opportunity. This is an exciting time in Oklahoma, because there has never been this much happening all at once to further the art and science of rape work. Most states are scaling their work back.