In the spring 2025 semester, the Rape Education and Prevention Program, an advocacy group for survivors of sexual violence, changed its name to Prevention, Advocacy, Trust and Healing.
R.E.P.P. began as a student-faculty program, offering a crisis hotline and serving as a confidential resource for survivors of sexual violence. While there has been a sexual violence prevention group at St. Joe’s for over 30 years, a $300,000 federal grant in 2017 helped fund training
for peer advocates, provided support via the hotline and connected survivors with various services.
Now under a new name, the program continues its same mission of advocacy, focusing on education, awareness and access to resources.
The motive behind the name change was to promote inclusivity, according to Mayva Pierre Louis ’26, president of P.A.T.H.
“We just wanted to make it a broader umbrella to make people that had been victims of any type of smaller scale sexual assault or domestic violence to feel included and to find the space to talk about it and find community,” Pierre Louis said.
Chris Morrin, M.S. ’25, St. Joe’s sexual misconduct prevention specialist and faculty advisor for P.A.T.H., said another motivation for the name change was to highlight P.A.T.H.’s preventative and educational efforts.
“We talk about more than sexual assault but also dating, domestic violence and stalking,” Morrin said. “We want to raise awareness about all those issues and help educate the campus community about them.”
In the spring of her senior year, Jamie Parker ’25 was one of the members of P.A.T.H. who was part of the conversation surrounding changing R.E.P.P.’s name. Parker said the new name better represented the goals of the organization.
“We needed to find a way to let the community know that it’s for everybody,” Parker said. “This is a conversation that we can have safely, and our main goal as a community is this acronym: P.A.T.H.”
In addition, Morrin said representatives of P.A.T.H. want survivors to know they don’t have to be alone in their struggle.
“This is a supportive, non-judgmental place where we really care about people, and we don’t want people to have to go through these things, suffer from the trauma, from assault by themselves,” Morrin said.
Pierre Louis said she also wanted to awareness about how common sexual violence is. She joined P.A.T.H. hoping to help build that community on campus.
“I just wanted to be part of that support and part of that conversation of ‘This is what’s happening, this is how we stop it and this is how we talk about it,’” Pierre Louis said. “Because, as much as people don’t really like to talk about it, because it’s such a sensitive topic, I feel like if we don’t talk about it, it’s going to keep happening and the numbers are going to keep going up.”
Parker reflected on the impact an organization like P.A.T.H. can have on those who participate with it.
“Survivorship can look different for everybody, and no matter your familiarity with the topic, it can carry a lot of pressure or heaviness that comes with it being unknown,” Parker said. “But I think it’s just really important, especially with the name change, that this is a safe space to connect and grow and learn.”
National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673
Office of Public Safety and Security: 610-660-1111
Counseling and Psychological Services: 610-660-1090
Office of Title IX and Equity Compliance: [email protected], [email protected] or 610-660-1145
Office of Student Support and Well-being: 610-660-1149
