WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., April 4, 2017 — Monday marked the start of Sexual Assault Awareness Month across the nation and West Liberty University students are partnering with the Upper Ohio Valley Sexual Assault Help Center to educate and promote awareness with a project that involves making survivor kits for sexual assault victims.
“We have two students organization, the Hilltoppers for Humanities and the Panhellenic Council, that are spearheading this effort but we are encouraging all students to stop by to help us create kits to give out to survivors,” said Campus Activities Coordinator Kate Billings, who works in the office of Housing and Student Life. The Criminal Justice Society also supported the effort.
The survivor kits will include clothing items, hygiene items and personal care products.
“We are so appreciative of the everything the students and staff are doing. We try to keep about five kits per hospital at all emergency rooms in all five counties of the Northern Panhandle so we really need these items,” said Executive Director Megan Palmer of the Sexual Assault Help Center. “Victims usually have to provide their clothing for evidence so these items mean a lot.”
“I think it’s great that our students are taking accountability and getting involved in this worthy project. It says a lot about our students,” said Billings.
The Hilltoppers for Humanities is a new group on the hilltop campus and it is affiliated with the YWCA of Wheeling. Any student can join and its mission is to bring awareness and assistance to the serious problem of dating violence. YWCA employee Vickie Masters is an advisor for the group.
Additionally, the Criminal Justice Society recently trained upwards of 60 students, staff, faculty, and the public for the Darkness to Light Childhood Sexual Abuse Prevention Training, according to Associate Professor Keith Bell, who is chairperson of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
“So far this year our Criminal Justice Society has donated over $500 to local charities and provided hundreds of hours of community service,” Bell said.
WLU Title IX Coordinator Diana Harto is pleased with the activities planned for Sexual Assault Awareness Month and encourages everyone to do their part in eliminating the problem. Also the WLU Chief Human Resource Officer, Harto recently worked to getting everyone on campus to sign the It’s On Us pledge.
The national pledge states that signees will: recognize that non-consensual sex is sexual assault, identify situations in which sexual assault may occur, intervene in situations where consent has not or cannot be given, create an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported.
“Last year we focused on creating an It’s On Us video involving students, faculty and administration to educate the campus that we all take responsibility in creating a culture that does not tolerate sexual assault. This year our student organization leaders partnered with local community groups in hosting multiple events throughout the month. We are so proud of their leadership and example,” Harto said. This week also is It’s On Us Spring Week of Action.
West Liberty University offers many resources for sexual assault victims and WLU completed a campus-wide online training of all employees to educate staff on just what sexual assault, sexual discrimination and sexual harassment are and how to deal with these issues in the workplace.
Other sexual assault awareness activities this April include:
- April 5 – 6, Clothesline Project visits on the Quad, coordinated through the Panhellenic Council of five WLU sororities
The Clothesline Project clotheslineproject.org started in Cape Cod, Mass., in 1990 to address the issue of violence against women. It is a vehicle for women affected by violence to express their emotions by decorating a shirt. They then hang the shirt on a clothesline to be viewed by others as testimony to the problem of violence against women.
- April 12: 7 p.m. viewing of Hunting Ground movie and discussion in the College Hall
The Hunting Ground a documentary film about the incidence of sexual assault on college campuses in the United States and what its creators say is a failure of college administrations to deal with it adequately. Written and directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering, it premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Other activities include:
- A wing-eating competition dubbed, Don’t Clip Her Wings, held at the Top of the Hill Restaurant at 7 p.m., April 19 and presented by the Panhellenic Council to raise money for the cause.
- Title IX education in the College Union Ballroom as part of Student Health Fair.
- Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, hosted by Chi Beta Phi, noon April 26 on the quad.
- Child Abuse Awareness Month support with Pinwheels for Prevention on the quad, sponsored by the Social Work Club.
Also during the entire month of April, posters and informative flyers were created and distributed in each residence hall and most buildings on campus, increasing awareness and encouraging active response to troubling incidents.
For more information on any of the Sexual Assault Awareness Month activities, please contact Billings at 304-336-8580. To contact the Sexual Assault Help Center, please call 304.234.1783 or the 24/7 hotline at 1.800.884.7242.
To view the video, “Be The One: Take A Stand,” created by the West Virginia Intercollegiate College Council Against Sexual Violence (group of college campuses and rape crisis centers), please click here.