Sexual assault prevention programs in works

Planning is underway for how St. Joe’s will implement new sexual assault prevention programs and trainings as a part of a federal grant the university received last year.

The Department of Justice awarded the university a three-year grant for $300,000 last November to help combat sexual assault on campus.

“When you talk about what we are doing, a lot of it is getting these things ready to roll out in a smart way and a sustainable way,” said Chris Morrin, sexual misconduct prevention specialist, whose position was also made possible by the grant. “We could do a program here and an awareness program there, and we will be busy, but I don’t know if that would be an effective use of the grant.”

Morrin is responsible for overseeing how the grant is used as well as ensuring the terms of the grant are met. Those terms can be broken down into five categories, Morrin explained:  coordinated community response, comprehensive prevention education, student conduct, law enforcement and victim services.

This grant also requires recipients to emphasize male engagement in combating sexual violence.

“We would love to build the interest of male students to form an organization that would work in that area,” said Mary-Elaine Perry, Ph.D., Title IX and Bias Response Coordinator. “A male student speaking to a male student is going to have more of an impact than someone else, but we need to work on that and build it up to get their support.”

One such event was a campus talk given by Jackson Katz on Oct. 11. The event was paid for through an It’s on Us grant, a smaller state grant of $30,000 dollars that St. Joe’s also received last year. The event focused on the role of men in combating sexual violence.

The student organization Rape Education Prevention Program (R.E.P.P.) will also benefit from the federal grant. R.E.P.P. members are being trained by Victim Services of Montgomery County to be peer advocates, Morrin said.

Gabby Southworth ’18, president of R.E.P.P., said she feels this training will help to increase R.E.P.P.’s visibility on campus as well as give volunteers skills to better aid survivors.

“Our main focus for this semester is getting everyone trained to answer the crisis phone line,” Southworth said. “I think it’s so important to have everyone be confident on how to respond when someone comes to you about this issue.”

Another program being launched as a part of the grant is Green Dot Bystander Intervention, which is aimed at training bystanders to intervene and prevent situations from becoming dangerous. A group of students and staff will participate in the first round of training for this program next January.

“For decades we have talked about how to respond to these incidents, educating mostly women how not to get assaulted, educating men how not to assault someone,” Morrin said. “The biggest group of people we are leaving out here are the bystanders. We want to unlock their potential.”

Morrin said he is hopeful students will be engaged as more programs are introduced in the next two years.

“I think all the students’ hearts and minds are in the right place,” Morrin said. “It just may not be something they think about every day and/or don’t have the skills, so we bring those. We’re not going to be convincing anyone of something they don’t already know and think is the right thing to do.” 

Students who have been affected by sexual assault or who know survivors of assault may contact the following resources:

R.E.P.P. Helpline: 610-733-9650

St. Joe’s Counseling Center: 610-660-1090

Montgomery County Victim Services

Center: 888-521-0983

Women’s Center of Montgomery County: 800-773-2424

RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-4673