Nate
As Vice President of Marketing & Communications for Joyful Heart, Nathan Richards focuses on developing the organization's online and print marketing efforts to help grow JHF's base of supporters and practitioners, as well as keeping clients and survivors in touch with the foundation and one another. Prior to joining Joyful Heart, Nathan was Director of Global Marketing and Communications at TransPerfect Translations, the world's largest privately-owned provider of language services. Nathan attended Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service with a concentration in Business, Information, and Communications.
Posts by Nate
Global Dispatch: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Jan 3rd
One of Endhtebacklog.org’s policy focuses is on ensuring justice and healing for survivors of sexual assault. Our work on these issues currently is limited to the domestic arena. However, we cannot ignore the very simple fact that the issues of sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse and other issues of violence against women, are pervasive and exist around the world.
At Joyful Heart, we envision a community that collectively turns towards these issues—a community that says to a survivor, “We hear you. We believe you. We feel for you. And your healing is our priority.” To that end, we want to acknowledge and honor that we are a part of a larger global community and have the opportunity to advocate on behalf of others around the world.
Today, we’re pleased to introduce a new recurring Backlog Blog feature entitled “Global Dispatches” that will offer first person views from individuals and organizations around the world that address the issues we seek to address. We hope that these updates will inspire our supporters to engage both locally and globally on these issues.
Our inaugural post. comes from Amy Ernst who is currently working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“The girls are not doing well. More >
In the News: LA Officials Honored as Local Backlog Reduced
Dec 13th
Late last week, there was considerable coverage in the L.A. press about the current state of the backlog of untested rape kits in Los Angeles County. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck was honored Friday by the California Forensic Science Institute for his efforts on the issue.
According to an Los Angeles Times, local law enforcement has announced that “it has made considerable progress analyzing DNA evidence from thousands of rapes and sexual assaults that had been left untested.” The article continues:
In late 2008, Beck’s predecessor, William Bratton, under pressure from victim advocate groups, tasked Beck with getting a handle on the thousands of pieces of evidence that had languished untouched in police storage freezers for years.
Ultimately, the department counted 6,132 untested rape kits, which contain samples of semen, blood, hair or other DNA material collected from victims’ bodies and crime scenes. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced it, too, had thousands of untested kits.
Both agencies committed themselves to clearing the backlogs and to test all viable rape kits going forward. The LAPD cobbled together funds from federal grants, public coffers and private donors to launch an aggressive push to outsource the evidence kits to private labs for testing.
At the same time, More >
In The News: San Francisco Seeks to Tackle Local Backlog of Untested Rape Kits
Dec 8th
One of our goals for the Backlog Blog is to help keep our wider community up-to-date on efforts to reduce the number of untested rape kits in localities all across the United States. From time to time, we’ll post news from around the country that highlights these efforts.
Yesterday, I came across an article in the San Francisco Examiner that discussed new legislation aimed to resolve the city’s backlog. Here’s one highlight from that article:
The Police Department would be required as part of its annual budget submission to report if it is meeting the goal of picking up rape kits within 72 hours of the reported incident, testing evidence within 14 days and testing other DNA evidence from the crime scene within a certain time frame, under proposed legislation.
I also found this quote from a local law enforcement official to be very heartening:
“Rape kits are the most valuable piece of evidence often in these cases. We support this 72-hour collection,” said Assistant Chief Denise Schmitt, who oversees the crime lab. She said the department has begun to meet that goal already.
Read the full article from the San Francisco Examiner.
And check back here on the Backlog Blog in the weeks ahead for More >
