Development action with informed and engaged societies

After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. 

Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future. 

On the transfer, co-founder Victoria Martin expressed her pleasure to see this work continue under Wits' leadership, knowing that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction. 

As Wits, we honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades and look forward building from that strong base. This includes co-founders Warren Feek (1953-2024) and Victoria Martin as well as La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA), which continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com with links to The CI Global site. We are also eager to forge new partnerships and entertain new ideas as we consider how best to contribute to social and behaviour change in our rapidly evolving environment.

If you are joining the International Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Summit in Panama, please join Wits and CILA on Monday, 22 June, to share your thoughts and suggestion for the relaunch of the Communication Initiative. We will be in Pacifica 5 from 12-1:25 for the Refuel, Reflect, and Renew Lunch Series: The Communication Initiative: celebrating a driving force for Communication for Social Change and the way forward. We will reflect on the legacy of Warren Feek and family in creating the Communication Initiative, consider the contributions of CI over the years and then turn our attention towards the future in this dynamic session. 

If you are unable to join us in Panama, we still want to hear from you. Please contribute your thoughts by following this link: https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026 or reaching out to ci_surveys@commint.com

You can also follow the QR Code:

 https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026

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Stalking Resource Centre

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The Stalking Resource Center is a programme of the National Center for Victims of Crime. Launched in July 2000, their mission is to raise national awareness of stalking and to encourage the development and implementation of multidisciplinary responses to stalking in local communities across the United States.
Communication Strategies
The resource centre aims to serve criminal and civil justice system practitioners; community-based agencies; media representatives; stalking victims; and the general public. The centre's activities include the following components.
  • Peer-to-Peer Exchange Programme - aims to facilitate ongoing partnerships between experts and communities that are developing multidisciplinary responses to stalking. Staff, aided by a team of expert practitioners, are available to participate in on-site problem solving consultations. The peer-to-peer exchange programme matches experts with technical assistance requests, typically received from law enforcement, prosecutors, and community- and system-based service providers.
  • Training - staff are available to participate in training events sponsored by practitioners on the local, state, and national level. Topics include could include stalking dynamics, legal remedies, multidisciplinary efforts, practitioner-specific practices, and cyberstalking.
  • Information Clearinghouse - provides a range of information for practitioners. Materials include statistics, practitioner-specific educational tools, compilations of state and federal legislation and protection order statutes, case law digests of civil and criminal cases, multidisciplinary curricula, promising practices and innovative strategies model protocols, forms, and procedures.
  • Practitioners' Network - to support interest in local stalking responses and to foster effective multidisciplinary work, a network of local practitioners representing diverse communities throughout the country has benn created, These local "points-of-contact" help to identify emerging issues and promising practices in the field. Members also exchange information to enhance their skills and efforts.
  • Website - a continually growing resource for practitioners and victims, the Stalking Resource Center website, availablein English and Spanish, provides diverse resources, including fact sheets on federal statutes, an annotated stalking bibliography, summaries of state stalking laws, a guide to online resources, statistical overviews, practitioner profiles, and more.
The Stalking Resource Center also holds awareness raising activities such as the National Stalking Awareness Month held annually in January in which people are encouraged to distribute materials, hold events, contact media, or conduct other local activities that raise awareness about stalking. They also offer assistance for victims
Development Issues
Women, Rights
Key Points
According to the Stalking Resource Centre stalking factsheet, "While legal definitions of stalking vary from one jurisdiction to another, a good working definition of stalking is a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear." 1,006,970 women and 370,990 men are stalked annually in the United States and 1 in 12 women and 1 in 45 men will be stalked in their lifetime.