Skip to main content


SAFESTAR Training

SAFESTAR Training Requirements

  • Application to the Southwest Center for Law and Policy to determine readiness and capacity to receive the free training (Note: some applicants may be steered towards a parallel track of developing or improving a Sexual Assault Response Team, and contracting for services with a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, depending upon community readiness and capacity).
  • Application approval by the United States Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women for the free training.
  • 1-2 intensive, on-site technical assistance visits by SAFESTAR Tribal governance and community organizing experts to interview sexual assault victim advocates and other allies; assess community resources; gather Tribal and State code provisions, inter-governmental agreements, protocols, Rules of Court, and Memoranda of Understanding; assistance in identifying potential SAFESTAR course participants and training location(s); assistance in identifying the primary Tribal contact persons(s); and assistance to identify challenges in implementation, as well as the strategies to successfully overcome these challenges.
  • Successful completion of the one week, 40-hour, free SAFESTAR training.
  • Successful completion of the 16-hour, facilitated Multi-Disciplinary Team Meeting of Federal, Tribal, and State criminal justice, healthcare, advocacy, crime laboratory, and other professionals.

SAFESTAR Trainers

HALLIE BONGAR WHITE

Executive Director, Southwest Center for Law and Policy: Attorney at Law – Tucson, Arizona 
bongarwhite@swclap.org

ARLENE O’BRIEN (TOHONO O’ODHAM NATION)

Project Director, Southwest Center for Law and Policy – Tucson, Arizona 
obrien@swclap.org

HALLIE BONGAR WHITE

Executive Director, Southwest Center for Law and Policy: Attorney at Law – Tucson, Arizona
bongarwhite@swclap.org


ARLENE O’BRIEN (TOHONO O’ODHAM NATION)

Project Director, Southwest Center for Law and Policy – Tucson, Arizona
obrien@swclap.org


CORDELIA CLAPP (PAWNEE)

Cordelia was born in Sells, Arizona to a full-blooded Pawnee Indian mother and a full-blooded Spanish father who worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which allowed her to live on numerous reservations in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. Ms. Clapp is a Native American health care professional who has been employed by the Kanza Health Clinic in Newkirk, Oklahoma as a Public Health Nurse and Diabetic Coordinator. One of her goals in life is to educate Native Americans about heart awareness throughout Indian country. She is a national spokeswoman for the American Heart Association and WomenHeart, a National Coalition for women with heart disease. Ms. Clapp was awarded the 2004 Local Impact Award as well as the 2005 American Heart Association Louis B. Russell, Jr. Memorial Award for her outstanding efforts in the service and improvement of health care delivery for Native Americans.


KIM DAY

Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE -A,P); International Association of Nurse Examiners – Maryland


JENNIFER PIERCE-WEEKS

Chief Executive Officer, International Association of Forensic Nurses

Jennifer Pierce-Weeks serves as the Chief Executive Officer, overseeing all programming offered by the Association, including the annual conference and all grant-funded projects and programming. She was responsible for creating the Association’s adult/adolescent and pediatric online SANE trainings and implementing the Online Learning Center. She has served IAFN in various roles including Chief Operations Officer, Education Director, Interim CEO, and Board President. She brings nearly 30 years of nursing experience, focusing on forensic nursing since 1995.

Jennifer presents nationally and internationally on a variety of forensic nursing related topics, including sexual assault and abuse, intimate partner violence, strangulation, child maltreatment and program management and sustainability. In addition, Jennifer has written, edited and reviewed state-specific protocols and customized protocols for hospitals, journal articles, SARTs, and tribal communities.

To begin the application process to bring SAFESTAR to your community

Call Southwest Center for Law and Policy at 520-623-8192
or
Email us at obrien@swclap.org or bongarwhite@swclap.org