SafeCampus
Prevention strategies
There are many ways to work together to prevent violence from occurring and to be prepared to respond when it does happen. In addition to providing in-person training, SafeCampus consults with departments on how to implement violence-prevention action steps with their student employees, staff and faculty members.
What works for each team is different — but here are a few of the common action steps units choose:
- Schedule regular conversations to discuss violence-prevention concepts or relevant current events in your field. For example, consider having a speaker come in to discuss the National Academies Report on Sexual Harassment in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
- Integrate resource information into your classroom environment. For example, before the beginning of every class, have a slide up that shares information about campus-based resources.
- Talk with your department about the expectation for how folks should respond if they learn a member of their department has experienced harm. Having a community in alignment and ready to support each other is a key violence-prevention strategy.
- Prepare for receiving a personal disclosure from someone else by practicing beforehand. Work with a colleague to formulate what you would say and what you would do next. Consider the exact phrase you would use, your body language and tone.
- Consider how you communicate that violence prevention is a priority for your group. Do you have signs that indicate this? Is this information a regular part of a new employee’s orientation to the University? Do your prioritize training for your employees?
- Reflect on feedback for your own behavior. Many of us have occasionally done things that negatively impacted someone else. It’s important that we make space to receive feedback when we’ve hurt someone else. Often, when we receive feedback, we become defensive and don’t really listen to what the other person is sharing. Practice active listening to increase your skills in receiving difficult feedback in a way that improves your relationship with someone else instead of harming it.
Bystander Intervention & Interruption: