Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

April 22, 2010
Contact: ASSU Executive Co-Chair of Undergraduate Health & Wellness Alisha Tolani
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The ASSU Executive Health & Wellness Team, in collaboration with the Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness and Vaden Health Promotion Services (HPS), launched a campus-wide relationship abuse and sexual assault poster campaign this month.

The posters are available to view online here.

“In running this campaign, we hope to inform students about the warning signs of relationship abuse, the importance of getting consent, and the power of bystanders in ending abuse and sexual violence,” commented David Gobaud, ASSU President.

The ASSU posters highlight the gendered nature of sexual assault and relationship abuse. 1 in 3 women in the United States will be abused in her lifetime.¹ 99% of sexual assault perpetrators are men.² 95% of relationship abuse is perpetrated by a man against a woman.³ 1 in 4 individuals in same-sex relationships experience relationship abuse.⁴

Nicole Baran (’00), Founder and Director of the Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness, explains, “Most men are not abusers. Most men do not sexually assault people. Because most abusers are men, it is important to maintain a gendered analysis in order to address the root problem. This is not meant to minimize the suffering of men who are survivors of sexual assault and relationship abuse.”

“Vaden Health Promotion Services and the Sexual Violence Advisory Board (SVAB) work in close partnership with the ASSU. The ASSU posters dramatically capture key issues and in support, HPS has developed a billboard of the posters in the Vaden lobby, where students can also pick up information,” stated Carole Pertofsky, Co-Chair of the Sexual Violence Advisory Board and Director of Vaden Health Promotion Services.

Alisha Tolani, Campaign Director and Co-Chair of the ASSU Executive Undergraduate Health & Wellness Team states: We strongly encourage you to lend your voice to the ASSU commitment to ending violence against women. Many students are aware that Stanford is a recipient of a Department of Justice 'Office of Violence Against Women’ grant that aims to end sexual assault and relationship abuse on college campuses nationwide. This grant expires at the end of 2011. The ASSU actively applauds efforts by the University and VPSA's Sexual Violence Advisory Board to identify gaps in service and allocate funds to grow and sustain these response and prevention programs. We urge the University to allocate such funds immediately to ensure that survivors' are receiving the services they deserve and need.”

Angelina Cardona (’11) and Kelsei Wharton (’12), the incoming ASSU President and Vice President, state: "We're prepared and passionate about working on issues surrounding sexual assault and relationship abuse on our campus. We plan to continue the initiatives spearheaded by the Dorsey-Harris and Gobaud-Parker administrations as well as work with institutional structures such as Residential Education to better streamline the reporting and follow-up process of sexual assault and relationship abuse cases. We've also created a Chair of Women's Issues position on our Executive Cabinet this year; this position will focus largely on addressing these two topics."

In addition to the poster campaign, the ASSU Executive Health & Wellness Team has worked this year to eliminate sexual assault and relationship abuse on campus through various outreach and educational efforts. The team worked with the Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness and Vaden Health Promotion Services to air ads during basketball and football games (including the Big Game) to raise awareness about violence against women. The team has also worked closely with other organizations at Stanford like Men Against Abuse Now (MAAN); Silent Nights, a new student publication dedicated to sharing survivors’ stories; and the Coalition to End Violence against Women.

For more information about relationship abuse visit stoprelationshipabuse.org.
For more information about sexual assault, visit sexualassault.stanford.edu.

PDF	PDF	PDF
PDF	PDF	PDF

References:

1. American Psychological Association, Violence and the Family: Report on the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family (1996), p. 10.
2. Greenfeld, L.A. (1997). Sex offenses and offenders: An analysis of data on rape and sexual assault, Washington DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
3. Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings: Violence Between Inmates (NCJ-149259), November 1994; A Report of the Violence Against Women Research Strategic Planning Workshop sponsored by the National Institute of Justice in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1995.
4. Barnes, It's Just a Quarrel, American Bar Association Journal, February 1998, p. 25.