The SASA! Story

SASA! is a community mobilization approach, not a curriculum. It uses multiple strategies and a variety of activities to work across the ecological model—or what we like to call the “circles of influence”—to engage individuals, couples and families; community leaders; and the groups and the institutions we all rely on.

SASA! works to create change at the community or population level—not only among those individuals directly involved in program activities.

SASA! is available for free use by any community or organization. We believe this is important to build the field of violence prevention and to support positive social change.

However, over the years, some organizations have used SASA! in ways that are unsafe and could do harm to women. Therefore, to access all of SASA! Together, an organization or community needs to commit to safe and ethical use before materials can be downloaded.

If both your organization and Raising Voices are able to agree on a technical assistance partnership, we will co-develop a memorandum of understanding prior to beginning our work together.

Otherwise, we require all organizations and individuals who would like full access to the SASA! Together methodology to sign up and agree to basic terms of use that can ensure safe and ethical violence against women prevention programming. While we are committed to open access and use for all of our materials, some groups have used SASA! in ways that have compromised women’s safety and the principles of ethical violence against women prevention programming.

To determine whether you are ready to effectively implement SASA! Together, please take our Suitability and Readiness Assessment here.

SASA! is a longer-term social norms change approach. It is not designed to be used for short campaigns or programming. We recommend at least three years to implement the SASA! Activist Kit, SASA! Faith or SASA! Together safely in communities.

Yes! Raising Voices partners with organizations and provides ongoing technical support through a “cohort model.” This is when several organizations interested in using SASA! go through a series of trainings together and receive remote and on-site technical support over the duration of their programming.

Raising Voices does not conduct one-off trainings for organizations. We have found this to be ineffective, costly and unsustainable. However, if you are interested in participating in a SASA! Together training, contact us and we will include you the next time we are planning a training as is feasible. Online training courses will soon be available to partner organizations.

We are also happy to have an initial discussion after you have reviewed the SASA! Together materials to help determine if the methodology is right for your organization.

Raising Voices is not a funding agency. We are unable to provide funds for SASA! implementation.

You can select specific activities or materials from SASA! However, you are not implementing the SASA! approach—meaning we cannot make any assumptions about impact. We caution groups against using SASA!’s provocative materials about power as stand-alone activities in communities. Working on violence against women is sensitive and requires support and care.

Impact will vary based on the intensity of implementation, the capacity of the organization using SASA!, the community’s existing knowledge and openness about violence against women, the community’s political context and many other factors. You can learn about SASA!‘s impact in Ugandan communities here.

No. Raising Voices published Mobilising Communities to Prevent Domestic Violence: A Resource Guide for Organisations in East and Southern Africa in 2003. SASA! builds on the resource guide and shares some key ideas while pioneering a new framework of power.

SASA! engages women and men, boys and girls. We believe everyone in a community is needed and important in creating social change.

While there are single-sex activities to allow women and men to have space for reflection and discussion, we do not use the language of male involvement because we don’t want to make women invisible on an issue that affects them the most!