First and foremost, I want to thank The College Voice for featuring the new Sexual Violence Education & Advocacy (Think S.A.F.E) Project at Conn College as well as to the college community as a whole for being so supportive of the program already. I’m eager to collaborate with students, faculty, and staff alike and feel as though we are headed in the right direction.
However, I do want to clarify a few points in the article which may have been misinterpreted.
While the article states that “even though the grant specifically points Folsom and her colleagues away from focusing on survivors in their policies, since education about ‘victim behavior’ might ‘reinforce the myth that victims somehow provoke or cause the violence they experience,’” I need to reiterate that working with survivors is one of our main objectives.
A primary purpose of the grant is to have one central resource for survivors to seek assistance, information and support. We know that providing centralized support to survivors is structurally integral to the success of the Think S.A.F.E. program. I was hoping my contact information would be placed in the initial article for this exact reason – if you, or someone you know, have had an unwanted sexual experience or are experiencing emotional or physical violence in a dating relationship, please feel free to contact me at x2219, darcie.folsom@conncoll.edu or stop by my office in Cro 218.
Although workshops are one component of our education plan, we will be implementing a variety of different programs and awareness activities to meet students’ needs and educate the campus about the problem of sexual violence in our community. I’m always looking for suggestions and assistance from the student body to create a campus where you feel comfortable discussing these topics, taking a stand and becoming an aware and active bystander.
I look forward to working with a variety of different organizations as we move towards our goal to create a campus climate that is wholly intolerant of sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking.
As Dani Murphy pointed out in her letter last week, there will definitely be collaboration with the Women’s Center with regards to programming as well as residence halls, athletics and faculty members.
Additionally, 1 in 4 will play an integral role in raising awareness with men on campus and will be collaborating with the Think S.A.F.E. Project in doing so.
There are numerous people across campus invested in this project and we are all working together to ensure its success in creating a coordinated community response to these issues. If you’d like to get involved, we will be recruiting for three fall semester interns so keep an eye out for more information on how to apply.
It is exciting that Connecticut College has taken such a big step towards violence prevention and advocacy services. I look forward to meeting everyone and our subsequent conversations as we all break the silence and stop the violence.
