RPE COUNCIL STEERING COMMITTEE
CONFERENCE CALL MINUTES
November 18, 2010
Present:Not Present:
Debbie Ruggles (WA)-Chair Rebecca Koshiba (Palau)-Region XI
Marci Diamond (MA)-Chair ElectBeth Zakutney (PA) – Region III
Vicki Rodriguez (NJ)- Regions I & IIDiana Read (ND)-Region VIII
Jan Davis (FL)-Region IVCarol Hensell (AZ)-Region IX
Susan LaFlash (WI) – Region VJen Grove-NSVRC
Peggy Helton (TX)-Region VIJulie McFarlane (OR)
Laurie Hart (KS) – Region VII
Emilee Coulter-Thompson (OR) – Region X
Binnie LeHew (IA) Chair Emeritus
Jessica Grzywacz (MI)-Secretary
Debbie called the meeting to order at 1:05 PM EST.
National Sexual ViolenceResourceCenter -NSVRC Update (Jen)
No Report
Old Business
Safe States/VAWA Reauthorization (Binnie)
A workgroup (Binnie, Debbie, Laurie, Jayne, Carol) meeting will be scheduled soon to work on the draft “at-a-glance” template for states to use in providing strategic information about their RPE programs. When completed, it will be sent to the steering committee for comments, and then to the full council for feedback. The workgroup will also discuss moving forward as a Council with a consistent message from the State Department of Health perspective.
Binnie will check to see if VAWA reauthorization is on the Safe States agenda. Binnie also noted that the FOA (Funding Opportunity Announcement) for Core Violence and Injury Prevention Programs (Core VIPP) is out, and encouraged RPE Directors to talk with state level injury staff about partnering opportunities. A summary of the FOA, the full announcement, and the downloadable application are available at
Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool-HECAT (Emilee)
Karen (CDC) has the feedback Emily collected and indicated that CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health indeed is accepting feedback and making revisions to the tool. Emilee is now waiting for Karen to identify to whom our feedback should be sent.
Emilee asked anyone aware of curricula that do a good job with evidence-based healthy relationships and/or sexual violence prevention components, to please share information with her (). Several members will investigate and send documents or contact information. It was suggested that a collection of evidence-based/informed, best-practice, promising practices be placed on the RPE Directors webpage. If you have items, please send them to Jen ().
Emilee also told us that APHA’s theme for 2011 National Public Health Week is "Safety is no Accident: Live Injury Free." It may afford opportunities to highlight prevention of sexual violence and will be discussed further on the January call.
CDC Child Sexual Abuse Program (Debbie)
After a meeting to be held soon, more information will be available.
New Business
RPE Revised Budgets (Debbie)
After all multiple, mixed messages from CDC:
1)By December 17, 2010, we all have send Rene a revised budget that matches our NoA (Notice of Award). Per CDC policy, you can email a PDF of the fully-signed revised budget to Rene Benyard, then mail 2 hard copies to her OR you can just send theactual fully-signed revised budget and two copies by postal service. A hard or electronic copy should be sent to your project officer.
2)If you happen to have additional requirements noted in the “Terms & Conditions” section of your NoA, you must update those in your budget revision.
3)Whenever (typically in Spring) some/all/more of the remaining 5% of our awards becomes available, we will have to do another budget revision.
Debbie & Marci will talk again with Margaret (CDC) about simplifying future requests and having a two-year period of availability for RPE funding.
Application Feedback From CDC (Debbie and Marci)
Margaret & Karen’s (CDC) feedback included that in future applications, we need to clearly indicate what our objectives are and ensure that they’re SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely—a Google search will provide more information and examples). CDC would also appreciate more narrative detail instead of an assumption on our parts that because we’ve been doing something for years that we don’t need to discuss it in each application. CDC is willing to provide any necessary TA to help us write tighter applications that will help us and them as we all face increasing pressures to produce measurable results.
For anyone experiencing difficulty in responding to Technical Review questions or concerns, Marci offered to share what she provided to CDC. She noted that a rewrite of the application isn’t necessary, nor are extremely in-depth responses.
2011 and 2012 RPE Meetings (Debbie)
2011: The meeting will be held in conjunction with the National Sexual Assault Conference in Baltimore. RPE dates and location haven’t been set; the NSAC is September 14-16, 2011.
2012: No information other than RPE Directors will have opportunities to participate in planning.(note – this applies to both years with more information to come as planning commences at CDC.
Principles of Prevention (POP) On-line training tool (Debbie & Marci)
Debbie & Marci beta-tested and provided feedback on the tool to CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention. Soon to be available, POP ( is a free, accredited on-line course designed to teach key concepts of primary prevention, the public health approach, and the social-ecological model. Watch for more information about POP and when it’ll be up & running.
Committee and Regional Reports
NSVRC Liaison Report (Marci)
An NSVRC project with the FrameWorks Institute has completed its first phase of research on how the public frames sexual assault and what might be appropriate communication strategies. They’re currently considering how to share those findings, so stay tuned. For more information about what FrameWorks Institute does, go to
Marci noted that RPE has good representation (three RPE Directors) on the NSVRC Advisory Council.
National Alliance Report (Debbie)
Regional Issues Check-in (Regional Representatives)
Regions I & II-Vicki Rodriguez (NJ) A December 2, 2010 call is scheduled.
Region IV-Jan Davis (FL) A call was rescheduled; Jan’s been helping people with budget issues.
Region V-Sue LaFlash (WI) November call elicited a request to have a calendar with important RPE dates and deadlines on the RPE Directors website.
Region VI-Peggy Helton (TX) Plan implementation, document and information sharing was discussed during October call.
Region VII-Laurie Hart (KS) Work on Summer 2010 (wasn’t this moved to 2011?) Regional Conference continues; MO has a new RPE Director, Heather Craig.
Region VIII-Diana Read (ND) Bev Duffel is South Dakota’s new RPE Director; unsure if Colorado has replaced Catherine yet.
Region X-Emilee Coulter-Thompson (OR) Email contact has worked for Region X members. Emilee shared that her state’s Women’s Health Program was folded into Maternal & Child Health. She asked for anyone who is also with Maternal & Child Health and willing to share that experience (or knows of someone who is) to contact her ().
Other Agenda Items
None
Meeting adjourned at 2:10 PM
Next call: Thursday,January 20, 20111-2 PM Eastern
Future Calls: Thursday, March 17, 20111-2 PM Eastern
Thursday, May 19, 20111-2 PM Eastern
Thursday, July 21, 20111-2 PM Eastern
Thursday, September 15, 20111-2 PM Eastern CANCELED
Thursday, November 17, 20111-2 PM Eastern
DIAL-IN NUMBER: 888-450-5996
PASSCODE477140
Meeting notes: Jessica Grzywacz
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