The National Association for Court Management (NACM) announces the release of resources and curricula to assist judges and court professionals to respond to sexual and gender harassment and abuse in the courts as a workplace.

The State Justice Institute (SJI) funded NACM to implement their proposed Courts in the Era of #WeToo curriculum project, which was collaboratively designed and proposed by NACM, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ), and Futures Without Violence. The shared vision of the partners was to develop and deliver nationally significant educational programs and guidance focused on sexual harassment and assault, including actions targeted against LGBTQ+ individuals in the courts, and to provide distance learning opportunities to broaden the opportunities for education on this topic to judges, court managers, administrators, and other court professionals.

With critical guidance from our Advisory Committee made up of judges and court leaders from around the country, the partners developed a curriculum informed by the experience of judges and court managers, built around proven adult-learning principles, and responsive to current issues and real leadership challenges. It is intended to be taught by a teaching team (ideally consisting of at least one judge and one court administrator) in three separate, 3-hour modules as follows:

Module 1: Fundamentals of Sexual Harassment Affecting Judicial Environments

• Sexual Harassment and Its Impact on Judicial Operations and Culture
• Root Causes: Power and Control in Judicial Environments

Module 2: Preventing and Responding to Sexual Harassment in Judicial Environments

• Eliminating the Drivers of Sexual Harassment in Judicial Environments
• Centering Needs and Promoting Accountability

Module 3: Leadership Strategies to Create and Sustain a Culture of Safety, Respect, and Dignity

• Principles of Self-Awareness, Reciprocal Accountability, and Emotional Intelligence
• Judicial Environments as Community Models

In addition to drafting the curriculum, the #WeToo partners trained six teams of trainers to use the curriculum with the expectation that they would be willing and available to train colleagues in their home states and across the country. The #WeToo Curriculum can be provided virtually and in person.