Prevention Education and Outreach includes educating, training and building awareness among students and the community to prevent and intervene in negative situations. Students gain tools to use to safely interrupt negative situations they witness and be a part of the solution.
The Active Bystander program is a student led program in which students are trained to provide workshops to other students on how to utilize the three D's of violence prevention. The three D's include: Direct: Intervene by saying "that's not cool, stop" or "Let's all separate to think...", Distract: Intervene by distracting one or all members involved in the negative behavior i.e. "hey don't I know you from class?" or Delegate by asking an authority figure to assist or call 911. They learn these techniques and more during the training.
A graduate assistant is critical to this prevention work. A graduate assistant, due to their age, is uniquely situated to relate to students and teach them how to prevent violence at Northern Illinois University and other settings they are involved in. The graduate assistant also gains a unique education skillset and perspective which will be useful in the future. Students can be the catalyst for change.
The gifts you so generously provide will assist in gaining a graduate assistant to provide support for the prevention program. The graduate assistant will help lead the Active Bystander program and recruit students to participate. The benefit will be that more students learn how to react to violence when they see it to ensure the situation does not escalate. Student or not, college-age adults are at high risk for sexual violence.
Help Prevention Education, prevent violence.
