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Strengthening Partnerships, Meeting Goals
We continue to build our collaborations with academic departments to strategically incorporate violence prevention education and gender equity efforts into relevant courses. In addition to salary negotiation skills for women, classroom topics include healthy relationships, consent, sexual violence prevention and bystander intervention.
Between fall and spring semesters, around 1200 students will receive three one-hour sessions within the Public Health course, “My Body/My Health”. As a result of the sessions this fall, 93% of the students indicated they felt more prepared to incorporate elements of consent into their sexual interactions and 98% said, “I could see myself using some of the bystander intervention strategies presented in the training.”
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“I think this [interpersonal violence] is an issue that needs to be continually discussed until there are less victims and the mentality of the bystander effect goes away. With more discussions like this, hopefully the less it will happen.” - MBMH Student Participant
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In addition to “My Body, My Health”, we have presented in courses including “Principles of Community Health Education” and “Fundamentals of Women’s Health”, as well as Sociology’s “The Family”.
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"CWC comes extremely well prepared. They cover the material we request in a thorough, well designed and participatory matter. Because all learning is accomplished in a participatory matter in the new My Body/My Health Team-Based Learning classes, the contribution to the student's learning through CWC workshops is ten times better than our traditional way of teaching - through lecture." -Dr.Dan Gerber & Dr. Andrea Ayvazian
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Start Smart: Salary Negotiation Skills for Women targets graduating seniors and aims to reduce the gender pay gap by giving women the knowledge and skills to successfully negotiate a higher compensation package.
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“I’ve gone to a variety of workshops and this is by far one of the most useful.” -Start Smart Participant
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Over the last several years, Start Smart workshops have been offered in collaboration with Public Health, Women Gender Sexuality Studies, Afro- American Studies, Communication Department, Biology and Engineering Departments. We hope that UMass Amherst graduates will be part of eliminating the gender wage gap.
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“I am so excited to offer the students this same great workshop again this year!” -Bridgett Thompson, MPH, CPHWC, ACC from the Public Health's Career Preparatory class
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If you’re interested in connecting our content into your curriculum, please contact us.
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Supporting Our Future through an Endowment
This year, with initial monetary investment from previous individual donations, we were able to start an endowment through the University Foundation.
This endowment is a special fund designed to be invested in order to increase the principal. Only the interest earned (up to 5%) on the endowment can be spent on an annual basis. The benefit of having an endowment is that it guarantees unrestricted funding that can be allocated yearly to meet an emerging need. Supporters can donate directly to the principal of the endowment, thereby ensuring our funding for years to come. Donations to the endowment are tax deductible and can be made directly through our website.
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We're Hiring: Teen Crisis Intervention Specialist
The search for a permanent Teen Crisis Intervention Specialist will be starting this spring. The Teen Crisis Intervention Specialist is a full time 52- week position that works with our counseling team.
The Teen Crisis Intervention Specialist provides short term peer counseling, crisis intervention and medical and legal advocacy to adolescent victims/survivors of sexual and relationship violence in the UMass Amherst and Hampshire County area. In addition, the Teen Specialist facilitates sexual violence prevention workshops in collaboration with area schools and youth serving organizations. Check out our website for information about applying. Applications must be submitted via the UMASS employment office once posted. Applications submitted directly to CWC will not be accepted.
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NASPA Conference
Members of our violence prevention education team presented, "Innovative Prevention Strategies and Coalition Building in an Activist-Oriented Community" at the annual NASPA Strategies Conference in Orlando, Florida this past January.
Described as “an incredibly forward thinking session” in reviews, Jill Grimaldi, Jessica Dautruche and gisella zuniga shared strategies for designing comprehensive violence prevention efforts to create common ground for the range individuals in our community, including:
- CWC’s Violence Prevention Educator Advocate Program: This program recruits and trains students and community members to provide educational programming to the five college campuses and the Hampshire County community. Volunteer training meets Department of Public Health requirements, allowing all of our volunteers to be confidential resources.
- YIS: Your Intervention Strategies: This fully customized online bystander intervention program for UMass Amherst engages students in violence prevention through storytelling and a personalized quiz that emphasizes their unique strengths as bystanders. YIS strategies are designed to go beyond the typical party-oriented interventions to resonate with a range of students and scenarios. This course meets Campus SaVE education requirements.
- Five College Violence Prevention Leadership Training: This training institute brings student activists together to build coalitions and discuss prevention strategies. We use the ecological model to demonstrate the value and appropriate context for a range of prevention strategies, from consent education to risk reduction.
- Partnerships with Academic Departments: This initiative collaborates with professors and teacher’s assistants to bring violence prevention messaging into the classroom. By working with programs, like UMass’ Department of Public Health, we have been able to integrate bystander intervention and other prevention messaging into student’s curriculum.
- Partnerships with Campus and Community Resources: These partnerships allow CWC to provide training to campus and community departments on violence prevention and response. For instance, we train campus Conduct Boards to understand the impact of trauma as it relates to their role. We are currently working on an online training to ground UMass Police Officers’ interactions with survivors of violence in best practice.
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Student Leaders in Violence Prevention
"I learned a lot about being aware of how different modes of communication may harm more than they help. My opinions changed (always a good sign!)"- Participant
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After a competitive application process, twenty four student leaders in the violence prevention movement from UMass Amherst, Hampshire College, and Mt. Holyoke were selected for intensive weekend training.
Using the Ecological Model, we discussed various prevention prongs including policy, risk reduction, education, supporting survivors, bystander intervention and community awareness campaigns to achieve the following goals:
- Build coalitions, connections, and common ground in violence prevention movement
- Implement sexual violence prevention strategies (SVPS) to maximize effectiveness and minimize harm
- Explore personal interests and strengths in SVPS
- Identify strengths and limitations of campaigns and SVP prongs
- Incorporate trauma-informed practices and principles in SVP efforts
- Identify laws and policies relevant to SVLP and relevance to efforts on campus
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"I liked applying what we learned to make 'peer led' violence prevention campaigns. It helped me conceptualize how I would apply trauma-informed practices in my own campaigns. I also liked learning to value each prong."
- Participant
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Student leaders from the following 5-College groups were represented: The Wellness Center, Queer Community Alliance, Sigma Psi Zeta Sorority, Peer Chaplain, CERC, Stonewall, CEPA, Active Minds, Sexperts, Student Bridges, Men & Masculinities Center, Safe Passage, Iota Gamma Upsilon, CLPP, Sigma Chi, VOX, Student Athlete Advisory Committee.
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"I think figuring out how to re-do campaigns was very helpful in applying practical knowledge we've been learning."
- Participant
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By the end of the training, 100% of participants agreed or strongly agreed with all the following statements:
- I can identify the strengths and limitations of SVPS
- I feel prepared to incorporate trauma-informed practices into my work
- I can see the value in all the prevention prongs.
This training will be offered again next spring to continually enhance our collective sexual violence prevention efforts.
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International Women's Day
In collaboration with International Programs Office, Office of Family Resources, Afro-American Studies, and Women Gender & Sexuality Studies, we hosted our annual celebration of International Women’s Day.
The celebration included music from Amherst Gospel choir, a spread of international hors d’oeuvres from Dining Services, children’s activities, and henna art.
We want to additionally highlight WOCLN's staff member, Victoria Matthews, for performing some of her original poetry. Victoria is a senior at UMass Amherst majoring in Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies with a minor in African American Studies. She envisions her future working as a Teaching Artist, public speaker and activist. She is a former member of Body Politics and uses her love of words to advocate for social justice, Black women’s liberation, self-expression, and prison abolition. Thank you Victoria and all those who came out to celebrate with us! Photos of the event.
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Staff Updates
Liz Mancevice joined our staff in December as the Interim Teen Crisis Intervention Specialist.
Prior to becoming the Teen Specialist, Liz worked as a court advocate for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence seeking restraining orders. Liz also volunteered with us as a hotline counselor and provided evening support and back-up to hotline volunteers.
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Alumni Spotlight
Sahana Reddy
Sahana has taken her UMass experience back home.
Sahana worked as our graduate level IT staff member from September, 2012 until May, 2014 when she graduated from the Masters of Computer Science program at UMass. Currently, she is working as a Senior Software Developer at Capillary Technologies in Bangalore, India.
Sahana held the primary role of managing CWC’s websites and other technological resources. She considers the work she did here as a launching pad for her technical education. She found that building/addressing our information access and storage needs helped her realize how technology can make a real impact on organizational functioning. Generally, she says that apart from the acquiring/exercising new technical skills, the professional experiences of participating in team discussions, handling sensitive information, and sorting out project requirements served to make her an important asset at her current workplace. Her current employment also allows her the additional opportunity to engage in charity events which she enjoys. Mostly recently, she was involved in organizing a games night for children with HIV.
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"Personally, CWC was always one of my most comfortable places on campus. The entire staff was extremely friendly and made me feel like I belonged. My supervisor was a mentor, she was a rock of support and helped shape my personality for the better." - Sahana
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Congratulations on all you’ve accomplished, we miss you Sahana!
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