St. Joe’s launched its Green Dot program, a national bystander intervention program founded in 2006, for students on March 4. In the program, a “green dot” refers to a choice people have to use their words or actions to help someone else, while a “red dot” indicates a choice someone has to use their words or actions to harm another person.
The prevention education program is part of a three-year, $300,000 grant awarded to St. Joe’s by the U.S. Department of Justice in November 2017 to help combat sexual assault on campus. Chris Morrin, a sexual misconduct prevention specialist in the Office of Student Outreach and Support, coordinates the grant.
“Part of that prevention education piece is we’re required to have a bystander intervention program, which is great,” Morrin said. “It’s best practice in terms of figuring out how to measurably reduce violence. We decided to bring Green Dot here because it is evidence based and supported by research so we know it works.”
In 26 high schools over five years, Green Dot programs reduced rates of sexual abuse, dating violence, stalking and other interper- sonal violence by 17%-21%, according to a study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that evaluated Green Dot bystander intervention.
Morrin said the Green Dot program has been in the works for three years, and was previously in an “underground phase” where the university was using elements and materials from Green Dot to give presentations to student groups, faculty and staff.
“It has been three years since we started,” Morrin said. “Now we’re ready for ev- eryone to join in because we need everyone.”
St. Joe’s commemorated Green Dot’s campus-wide launch with an event in Campion Student Center on March 4. Five facul- ty members, three student workers and two representatives from the Victim Services Center of Montgomery County helped run tables, including poster fingerprinting, bystander Q&As and raffles.
Morrin said 33 students registered on Friday to attend Green Dot presentations. During the Green Dot presentations, attend- ees will learn what Green Dot is, how it works and learn practical skills and strategies to be- gin preventing harm in their daily life.
So far, 25 St. Joe’s employees have gone through a four-day training to deliver the content, and 260 employees have gone through an overview presentation to learn about Green Dot, according to Morrin.
Representatives from the Victim Services Center of Montgomery County came to support the Green Dot launch after being contacted by Morrin because of the similarities between their programs.
“Our education prevention programs tie in nicely with Green Dot’s because a lot of prevention starts with knowing what to do when you see something happening or see the start of something happening that you know shouldn’t be happening,” said Molly Lloyd, prevention education specialist at Victim Services Center.
The Victim Services Center is a non-profit organization operating out of Montgomery county which offers “advocacy and counseling for all who have been affected by sexual violence and other crimes against the person, and to promote sensitivity and awareness in the community through education,” according to the organization’s mission statement.
“We support being good bystanders and we teach bystander intervention programs,” said Kiley Addis, prevention education specialist at Victim Services Center. “We’re here just to spread the good message and help out with the launch.”
St. Joe’s is holding its next two Green Dot sessions on March 9 from 5-6:15 p.m. and March 23 from 5-6:15 p.m. Registration for Green Dot can be found here: https://forms.sju.edu/studentlife/view.php?id=334700
