Office of Anti-Violence Initiatives Earns Second Federal Grant

In late September, the College received word that the Office of Anti-Violence Initiatives (OAVI) was approved for re-funding by a grant from the United States Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women. The two-year grant totals $181,575.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment,” said Jackie Deitch-Stackhouse, coordinator of OAVI. “Most schools only get the grant once, and we competed against the largest pool of applicants since the grant’s inception in 1999.”

The Grants to Reduce Violent Crimes Against Women on Campus program, through which the grant is administered, aims to provide a unique opportunity for institutions of higher education to establish multidisciplinary groups to combat violent crimes against women on campuses. These comprehensive efforts are designed to enhance victim services, implement prevention and education programs, and develop and strengthen security and investigation strategies in order to prevent and respond to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking crimes on campuses.

Before the creation of OAVI, President R. Barbara Gitenstein commissioned a Sexual Assault Task Force (SATF) in fall 2000 to increase the campus community’s awareness of sexual assault and to enhance student safety. In November 2003, the College received the first grant to fund OAVI. The office aims to increase awareness of domestic and sexual violence while concurrently providing a wealth of resources, including the Survivor’s Guide to Sexual Assault brochure, for students, faculty, and staff.

The continuation grant will allow for the transformation of the SATF so as to improve communication, coordination, and overall victim-service response to violent crimes against women on campus, and provide specialized training to campus police, judicial hearing board officers, and victim-service providers in campus and community-based victim response. The grant funding will also help develop prevention education programming for incoming students during the first few weeks of their college transition, upgrade campus police policies and procedures, and improve accessibility to emergency technological systems and equipment for the disabled population. In February 2006, in collaboration with the North-American Interfraternity Conference, the College will develop and implement an Intimate Partner Violence Summit for our Greek organizations. The two-day summit will provide a forum to offer educational programming and to actively engage students in a dialogue around issues of sexual assault, domestic/dating violence, and stalking. The summit can then be used as a model for other colleges and universities.

Along with the creation of OAVI, the initial grant is also facilitating the development of the Initial Contact Advocacy Network, or ICAN, which will educate volunteers in understanding the resources available to assist victims of sexual assault and present a safe network that encourages victims to come forward. Victim-service protocols have been revised, revamped, and over the past year the College has been pleased that more and more often, victims are coming forward to report assaults and attempted assaults, indicating that the efforts of the SATF and OAVI have been extremely effective.

During the week of October 17, OAVI organized (in conjunction with a number of on-campus organizations, such as the White Ribbon Campaign, WILL, the Women’s Center, Amnesty International, club sports, Greek groups and more) a week full of events in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This year’s theme of “Men and Women Together Can Stop Domestic Violence,” included public displays of purple ribbons (the official color of Domestic Violence Awareness Month), a Men Against Violence Against Women pledge signing, a co-ed game night, and “The Many Faces of Domestic Violence,” an all-day tribute to those affected by domestic violence.

“It is so important to engage men and women early in their lives in order to help guide their future relationships,” said Deitch-Stackhouse.

For more information, visit OAVI on the Web at www.tcnj.edu/~wellness/antiviolence/.