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The RPE Program provides rural, urban, and suburban areas with the opportunity to change sexual violence through the implementation of the following legislatively approved activities:

• Educational seminars; • Training programs for professionals; • Preparation of informational material; • Operation of hotlines; • Training programs for male and female students and campus personnel designed to reduce the incidence of sexual assault at colleges and universities; • Providing literature, education, and information about the Georgia law on statutory rape to adolescent males participating in the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and Evidence-Based Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Program; • Increase the awareness about drugs used to facilitate rapes or sexual assaults; • Other efforts to increase awareness in underserved communities and among individuals with disabilities as defined in Section 3 of the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. Section 12102).

To strengthen and improve Georgia’s existing State Action Plan, GASVPP staff and key program partners — including the state’s SV coalition, the Georgia Network to End Sexual Assault (GNESA) — collaborate regularly to plan, prioritize, and establish the most effective SV prevention approaches. To strengthen economic supports for priority populations in Georgia, GASVPP will partner with local sexual assault centers (SACs) in high-risk areas to provide training or workshops to address needs in the community related, but not limited, to housing, food, and financial insecurities. Two primary prevention strategies will be implemented that focus on promoting social norms that protect against violence. Georgia has expanded prevention interventions to under-represented areas of the state and to add a more diverse group of partners.

• Athletes as Leaders and Coaching Boys into Men are complimentary evidence- based programs with implementation at Georgia Recreation and Parks Association sites and high schools throughout the state to empower girls, engage boys as allies, and promote healthy relationships. • Step Up. Step In. (SUSI) is a Public Health District awareness campaign in high-risk middle and high schools in Georgia that focuses on identification and stopping sexual bullying from occurring between youth and increasing sexual violence awareness and bystander interventions.

O. Georgia Law Related to Statutory Rape

In Georgia, anyone who engages in sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 may face charges for statutory rape, even if the act was consensual. Furthermore, engaging in any sexual activity by force or without the other person’s consent can result in charges for sexual battery or assault, no matter what the age of the other person (Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A. §16-6-3). Georgia child welfare policy requires the reporting of suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation of any child, aged person, or disabled adult no later than 24 hours