Money will allow for more education about violence against women.
The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), in the U.S. Department of Justice, awarded a $300,000 federal grant to St. Joe’s that will fund an anticipated three years of work focused on the prevention of campus sexual assault.
The grant will contribute to the hiring of a Sexual Assault Prevention Specialist who will lead the university’s sexual assault prevention and education efforts on campus.
“The Prevention Specialist will convene a Coordinated Community Response Team that will work collectively to address issues of sexual misconduct on campus including sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking,” said Mary-Elaine Perry, Ph.D., Title IX Coordinator. “The team will include faculty and staff from SJU as well as LMT [Lower Merion Township] Police, Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center, Philadelphia DA’s Office, Victim Services Center of Montgomery County and the Clery Center.”
The university applied unsuccessfully for this grant last year. However, on this attempt they tried a different approach, directly addressing issues of sexual assault on St. Joe’s campus.
“As on all college campuses, we are working hard to prevent sexual misconduct, but we do not have the human and fiscal resources to do all the things we would like to,” Perry said. “We applied for this grant to support our efforts to keep our students safe and to educate our community.”
The grant will also be used to educate students so they have a deeper understanding and better opportunities for raising awareness of sexual assault. It will also allow for staff from Student Outreach and Support, Public Safety, and Community Standards, who deal with sexual misconduct, to receive ongoing training at the national level.
“The ultimate goal of all of this work is to prevent sexual misconduct from occurring on campus,” Perry said. “The more students understand what it is, how it happens and how each of us can play a part to prevent it, the safer our campus will be. Our expectation is that initially, we will have more reports of sexual misconduct because students will be aware of what it is and options they have for reporting.”
One in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Only 20 percent of female student victims in the 18 to 24 year-old age group will report to law enforcement, according to Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN).
According to Perry, approximately 700 women at St. Joe’s will have been sexually assaulted during their college career. She only gets 10 to 15 reports a year.
As part of the effort to encourage awareness of sexual assault and to prompt more open conversation, Bridging the Gap, a student group that aims to promote awareness of different groups to create a more welcoming and accepting environment on campus, hosted a panel and a discussion meant to put a face to sexual assault survivors and their stories.
“A lot of times people hear about things that are going on and don’t really put a face to it and once you put a face to it, it creates a more educated understanding community on campus,” said Lauren Preski ’20, the event organizer.
The panelists at the event were Raquel Bergen Ph.D., director of Gender Studies and faculty advisor for Rape Education Prevention Program (REPP); Mary-Elaine Perry, Ph.D., Title IX Coordinator; Gabby Southworth ’18, Co-President of the St. Joe’s chapter of One Love; and Yaa McNeil ’17. Southworth and McNeil are sexual assault survivors.
Southworth, who shared her story, said she didn’t always know exactly what sexual assault meant.
“I think that a lot of us think that sexual assault has to be this really violent brutal crime to be called sexual assault or to be called rape but in reality it’s really just an unwanted sexual act, it’s non-consensual.”
Southworth doesn’t share her story to have people feel bad for her, but instead to empower others to come forward if they have been sexually assaulted.
“I share this story to empower and to help you realize that I have gotten through this and am still getting through this and you can too,” Southworth said. “I’m sharing my story to help others. To understand that you may not always know what to say but it is about being there for your friends.”
Bergen has seen years of sexual assault cases and said that the increase of awareness is helpful to get the message out.
“As the faculty moderator of REPP, I hear lots of stories, some years are tougher than other years,” Bergen said. “I have to say with all the media awareness and with the #MeToo campaign that’s going on there’s a lot of information to share and I think the upside to all that information to share is we are having conversations like this.”
The grant comes at a time when sexual assault survivors are coming forward and speaking out about their perpetrators.
“Women are becoming more confident and I think it is really a great thing,” Preski said. “The more women we have coming forward and the more women who feel comfortable coming forward, the safer our world will be as a whole, especially for women.”
