Only The Beginning

While we have made great strides in sexual assault prevention with the passing of new federal mandates for all colleges and universities there is still an abundance of expected growth in prevention efforts. Personally, I am proud that I have been part of a movement to become more proactive at preventing college students from experiencing something that can affect them for the rest of their lives. If one sexual assault is prevented due to the prevention efforts from my office, it will make our efforts 100% worth it.

I feel that in the past few weeks there have been spotlights in the media regarding sexual assault and college campuses and it seems that colleges and universities are complying with the new federal mandates and approaching sexual assault cases in a more direct manner. If 1 in 4 women and 1 in 33 men are experiencing at least one sexual assault in their lifetime, it is clear that improvements in prevention efforts needed to be made. I look forward to see future sexual assault statistics to see if these efforts have made a difference over a long period of time. I hope this blog encourages people to step in and prevent sexual assaults and to become more aware of this issue within our community.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."- Lao Tzu

Strategy Presentation

Sexual Assault and Minority Populations

Sexual assault affects both men and women of all ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. According the joyful Heart Foundation (2014) 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men will experience sexual assault in their lifetime in the United States. Among those individuals that will experience sexual assault, in 2010 22% of black women and 18% of white, non-Hispanic women will experience sexual assault in their lifetime (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2010). Also, 14% of Hispanic women and 24% of American Indian and Alaskan Native women will experience sexual assault in their lifetime (CDC, 2010). While the statistics among women of various ethnicities seem to be about the same, the sexual assault among men of different ethnicities varies greatly. 1.7% of non-Hispanic, white men will experience sexual assault in their lifetime where 26% of Hispanic men and 32% of multicultural, non-Hispanic men will experience sexual assault (CDC, 2010). The differences in the prevalence among men who experience sexual assault is astounding.
The major difference in sexual assault prevalence among men and different ethnicities can be attributed to a number of factors. Considering the recent increase in sexual assault education and policy enforcement among all U.S. colleges and universities, education could be a factor among the sexual assault statistics among men. In 2010, 44% of white males ages 18-24 attended college immediately after high school where only 32% of African American men and 26% attended college right after high school (US Department of Education, 2010). This difference in higher education among men of various ethnicities could attribute to decreased education and prevention efforts aimed at sexual assault among men who do not attend college after high school. these men may be missing educational opportunities that other men and women are receiving at colleges and universities.
Overall, sexual assault is an issue that will never be fully understood and documented due to a lack of reporting among those that are affected. With the information that is available to use, we can produce education and prevention efforts that are aimed at ethnicities that have produced higher sexual assault statistics.

References

Centers for Disease Control (2010). National intimate violence and sexual violence survey.

             Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs_report2010-a.pdf

Joyful heart Foundation (2014). Who does sexual assault affect? Retrieved                                                                from http://www.joyfulheartfoundation.org/learn/sexual-assault-and-rape/about-issue/who-does-                  sexual-assault-affect

U.S. Department of Education (2010). Status and trends in the education of racial and ethnic groups.

            Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010015.pdf

Lesson Plan

Course: Sexual Assault Prevention and Bystander Intervention Training

Provided by the Office of Health Education

Date: Fall 2014
Materials Needed: PowerPoint presentation and laptop computer, dry erase markers, pre- tests and post-tests

Purpose of Training

Sexual assaults occur among college students across the country. In fact, up to 25% of women and 6% of men attending college will experience some form of sexual assault before graduating (Exner and Cummings, 2011). Along with these alarming sexual assault statistics among college students are various social behaviors and perceptions that may be contributing factors to these rates (Exner and Cummings, 2011). Applying bystander intervention training in relation to sexual assault among college students can help expel the social norms and acceptability of behaviors that may lead to sexual assaults (Exner and Cummings, 2011). Encouraging college students to step in and intervene in situations involving a potential sexual assault can be a difficult task based on the perceived social norms and perceived behavioral capabilities (Casey and Ohler, 2011). This training is designed to extinguish social norms that may be contributing to sexual assaults among college students and empowering students to step in and attempt to prevent sexual assaults from occurring.

Training Objectives and Goals

Among all the college students participating in the training session, 90% will be able to demonstrate a clear understanding of the definitions of sexual assault, stalking, and domestic/dating violence after the completion of the training and post-test materials indicating a cognitive understanding of sexual assault.
At the completion of the fall 2014 semester and the implementation of the sexual assault and bystander intervention training to 200 or more students, there will be a 5% decrease in the number of sexual assaults reported to university police as reflected on the Cleary report of the 2014 fiscal year implying the effectiveness of the bystander intervention component of the training.
At the completion of each training session, 80% of college students will answer 90% of the post-test questions correctly implying a cognitive understanding of the training materials. This training was created to help college students develop a better understanding of the definitions and potential risks of sexual assault, stalking and dating violence. In addition, college students are trained in bystander intervention in an attempt to prevent sexual assaults from occurring among students. Trained and empowered students have the ability to prevent sexual assault among their fellow students. This training offers college students the information and strategies needed to decrease the number of sexual assaults among college students.

Training Setting and Duration

The sexual assault prevention and bystander intervention training will take place in classrooms, lecture halls or in dormitory classroom/study areas with technology capabilities. The Office of Health Education aims to make this training session available to all students and student organizations that may request the training. The training does require technology for the power point presentation and internet access for the video portion of the program. The settings of the various training locations can be both formal, a lecture hall with rows of chairs, or informal, a dormitory location with couches and other comfortable seating. The effectiveness of the program is based upon trainee participation which is possible in a number of different settings and learning environments.

The training session will take approximately 45 minutes with 15 minutes allotted for group discussion and questions, one hour total. The introduction will take about 5 minutes at the beginning of the presentation, introducing the presenters and briefly explaining the purpose of the training. Next, a pre-test, about 5 minutes, will be given to the participants to establish an initial understanding of the information that will be covered in the training. The power point presentation will take approximately 25 minutes while incorporating discussions from the audience. An 8 minute video will be shown that enhances the importance of bystander intervention in sexual assault prevention followed by a 5 minute post-test covering the materials discussed during the training. About 10-15 minutes will be allotted after the post-test will be allotted for discussion and questions from the audience.

Training Materials

For this training, there will be a short introduction, a pre-test, a PowerPoint presentations, a video retrieved from YouTube and a post-test. The pre and post tests and PowerPoint presentation will be created by a health educator with the use of supported resources and health education theories and models. The training will be administered using a laptop computer housed in the Office of Health Education and projectors supplied in classrooms, dormitory classrooms and lecture halls. Internet access is necessary for the training. Pencils will be provided to trainees for the pre and post tests. A dry erase marker will be supplied by the Office of Health Education to be used on white boards in the classrooms for the purpose of training discussions.

Health Education Model

The sexual assault prevention and bystander intervention training was formed based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. The TPB states that behaviors are based upon perceived social norms, perceived behavioral control and attitudes towards a specific behavior (Simms and Byers, 2012). In relation to sexual assault prevention and bystander intervention the TPB related to perceived sexual behaviors of a specific population, identifying the possible warning signs of sexual assault and the belief that an individual has the power to step in and prevent sexual assault from occurring (Casey and Ohler, 2011). This training will address the social norms associated with sexual behaviors among college students, making trainees more aware of all the behaviors considered sexual assault in relation to behaviors that may occur on a regular basis on college campus. Also, the presentation will empower trainees to intervene in situations that may lead to sexual assault and help them determine a number of different intervention methods, emphasizing the behavior control associated with the TPB. The training will help college students understand their boundaries and awareness of behaviors and situations that may lead to sexual assault in an effort to prevent the occurrence of sexual assaults on campus. The TPB correlates closely to the goals and objectives of this training. Helping college students understand their potential roles in preventing sexual assaults as well as identify common social behaviors that could be contributing to sexual assaults among students (Simms and Byers, 2012).

Training Procedures

1. Introduction: The health educators will introduce themselves and give a brief overview of the services provided to college students by their department. A brief reasoning behind the importance of sexual assault prevention training and bystander intervention for college students will be provided.
2. Pre test: A pretest will be provided to participants. The pretest is intended to measure the participants’ initial understanding of the definitions of sexual assault, stalking and dating violence. The pretest will also cover information related to the bystander effect and intervention strategies. The pretest will cover information that will be covered in the 3. PowerPoint presentation. Participants will be allowed 5 minutes to complete the test. Tests will be collected by the presenter before the presentation begins.
PowerPoint Presentation: The first 3 slides will cover the definitions of sexual assault, stalking and dating violence. The law and university policies will be discussed so participants have a solid understanding of the legal aspects of these definitions. Next, the importance of bystander intervention will be emphasized in relation to sexual assault. The bystander effect will be discussed on the next slide. Discussing the bystander effect will help participants understand the importance of taking action, even if they believe someone else has already stepped in. Common reasons why bystanders do not step in will be discussed as a group using the white board and dry erase markers. The goal is for participants to determine some reasons that bystanders would not step in during situations involving sexual assault before they are provided to them. The same learning approach will be applied to the common reasons why bystanders do step in during situations involving sexual assault. Next, the participants will be given three scenarios that could lead to sexual assault that college students may face. The audience will be asked if they would step in for each of the scenarios and how they would intervene I order to give all participants ideas and tips on how to intervene in the event of a real situation.
4. Video: After the discussion are complete the participants will view an 8 minute video that shows common situations that may lead to sexual assault and depicts the outcomes of situations when bystanders do not intervene and situations when bystanders do intervene. The video can be found on YouTube. Participants will be encouraged to share their opinions of the video and the situations depicted.
5. Post Test: At the completion of the video participants will be given a post test. The post test will be similar to the pre test and used to determine the learning comprehension and effectiveness of the training. Participants will be given 5 minutes to complete the post test.
6. Evaluation: Health educators will compile the data collected from the pre and post tests and make adjustments to the training based on the results. These results will be utilized to determine if the objectives are the training are met.

Evaluation

The objectives of the training will be measured through the pre and post test results and the Clery report complied each fiscal year by the University Police Department. The pre and post test will help the health educators view the effectiveness of the training among college students. The pre test and post test will determine the level of understanding of sexual assault and bystander intervention both before and after the training occurs. If the understandings of the training materials have not been met by at least 80% of participants, changes to the training and administering of the training will be reviewed. The Clery report will identify if the number of sexual assault that occur on campus has been lowered since the application of this training program. The bystander intervention approaches utilized in the training can be implied as successful if there are a reduced number of sexual assaults on the Clery report following the training. While there may be multiple reasons behind a decrease in reported sexual assaults the introduction of bystander intervention to college students can be implied as a supporting factor.

Possible Problems and Solutions

When utilizing technology and internet access there may be issues presenting materials to the audience. In the anticipation of technical difficulties, paper copies of the presentation will be available to all participants so that they can follow along with the presentation. If there is an issue with internet access during a presentation, the video portion of the presentation will be compromised. In the event that there is loss of internet access, each participant will be asked to provide an e-mail address where a link to the video can be sent. The participants will be asked to view the video on their own time after the presentation. While this is not the desired scenario for the training, providing students with the video in any way is important. There may be an event in which a participant will be sensitive to the presented materials due to their own experiences or the experiences of others. A statement will be made before the presentation begins describing the nature of the program. If a participant feels that the presentation may be a trigger for past experiences and the associated feelings those participants will be able to leave at any time. Also, contact information for the University Counseling Center will be made available to all participants if they feel they would benefit from discussing any feelings they may have as a result of the training or a previous experience.

References

Casey, E.A. and Ohler, K. (2011). Being a positive bystander: Male antiviolence allies’

experiences of "stepping up". Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 27,62-83.

doi:10.1177/0886260511416479

Exner, D. and Cummings, N. (2011). Implications for sexual assault prevention: College students

as prosocial bystanders. Journal of American College Health, 59:7, 655-658. Retrieved
from http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2225/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=dc0c479c-830a-46c4-8b81-3854c22a0994%40sessionmgr111&vid=2&hid=119

Simms, D.C. and Byers, E.S. (2012). Heterosexual daters’ sexual initiation behaviors: Use of the
theory of planned behavior. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42, 105-116. doi: 10.1007/s10508-012-9994-7
　

　

　
　

　

The Importance of Bystander Intervention in Sexual Assault Prevention

After the introduction of the new federal mandates related to sexual  assault reporting and education on college campuses, the new mandates can be found here notalone.gov, there has been an increase in the number of bystander intervention programs that are being created to help prevent sexual assaults. Bystander intervention is when a witness to a potentially violent crime steps in and attempts to prevent the crime from occurring (Mississippi Coalition Against Sexual Assault, 2010). I have created a bystander intervention training for the students at UT Dallas that addresses sexual assault, dating violence, suicide, and any other potentially violent act that may occur on campus. My goal is to let students know that they have the power to step in and prevent these acts from happening on their campus. While creating this program I found a video that shows how bystander intervention can play a role in preventing sexual assaults in situations that many college students may face. I believe this is a great example of what can be included in a bystander intervention training that includes sexual assault.

Preventing sexual assaults on college campuses does take a number of different approaches and educational components and bystander intervention should be one of them. If students step in in the situations shown in the video, there may be a reduced number of sexual assaults on college campuses across the country.

References

Notalone.gov (2014). Schools. Retrieved from www.notalone.gov

Mississippi Coalition Against Sexual Assault (2010). Bystander intervention. Retrieved                                                     from http://mscasa.org/bystander-intervention/

Whoareyou.co.nz (2011). www.whoareyou.co.nz [video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?                                  v=iUj2OHLAG3w

Brochure

Facts and Figures

It is known that sexual assaults occur in the United States, but exact numbers and figures are difficult to determine based upon the suspected number of unreported sexual assaults that occur (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network [RAINN], 2014). Approximately 60% of all sexual assaults are never reported to police (RAINN, 2014). Despite the lack of sexual assault reporting, it has been determined that a sexual assault occurs every 2 minutes in the United States resulting in over 230,000 sexual assaults each year (RAINN, 2014). 1 in 6 women will be a victim of sexual assault within their lifetime resulting in over 17 million American women that have survived a sexual assault or an attempted sexual assault (RAINN, 2014). Men can also be survivors of sexual assault. It is thought that many sexual assaults that occur among men go unreported, more often than sexual assaults against women (After Silence, 2011). Approximately 1 in every 33 men in the United States will experience sexual assault in their lifetime (RAINN, 2014). Among all sexual assaults, 90% occur between acquaintances, meaning that most survivors of sexual assault knew the assailant (RAINN, 2014).

Recently, the Department of Education published updated requires for higher education institutions regarding the reporting and handling of sexual assault cases among college students. These new regulations can be attributed to the high number of sexual assaults that have occurred on college campuses for a number of years (Franklin, Boufford and Pratt, 2012). About 1 in 4 college women and 3% of college men have reported surviving sexual assault after the age of 14 (One In Four USA, 2011). In fact, 25% of all reported sexual assaults occur among women aged 18-25, ages of a traditional college student (RAINN, 2014). The culture of college campus and the behaviors of college students may be attributed to these high rates (Franklin, Boufford and Pratt, 2012). Acquaintance or date rape tends to be the most prevalent form of sexual assault among college students (Franklin, Boufford and Pratt, 2012). This can be linked to high rates of alcohol and drug use among college students than individuals aged 18-24 not attending college (Franklin, Boufford and Pratt, 2012). The new federal regulations from the Department of Education will enforce increased education and prevention efforts provided to all college students and help regulate the reporting and judicial processes colleges and universities take when addressing sexual assault claims/reports among students (Not Alone.gov, 2014).

The effects that sexual assaults have adverse effects in survivors' lives (RAINN, 2014). Survivors of sexual assault are 3 times as likely to suffer from depression than someone who has not experienced  sexual assault (RAINN, 2014). Even more alarming, survivors are 26 times more likely to abuse drugs and 13 times more likely to abuse alcohol as a result of sexual assault (RAINN, 2014).

The effects of sexual assault on survivors and the alarmingly high rates of sexual assault among men and women are validation that sexual assault is a public health issue that needs to be addressed through education and prevention efforts. Increased efforts to educate the public about the incidence of sexual assaults and ways that they can be prevented will help reduce the number of survivors battling the lasting effects of sexual assault.

References

After Silence (2011). Male Surviviors. Retrieved from http://www.aftersilence.org/male-survivors.php

Franklin, C.A., Boufford, L.A.. and Pratt, T.C. (2012). Sexual assault on the college campus: Fraternity                     affiliation, male-peer support and low self control. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 39, 1457-                     1480. doi: 10.1177/0093854812456527

One In Four USA (2011). Sexual assault statistics. Retrieved                                                                                       from http://www.oneinfourusa.org/statistics.php

Not Alone (2014). Title IX compliance requirements. Retrieved from https://www.notalone.gov/schools/

Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (2014). Who are the victims?. Retrieved from
                https://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/sexual-assault-victims 

How I Got Here

My journey in the health education field began at Oklahoma State University as an undergraduate when I had no idea what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I began college majoring in engineering, quickly realizing that the field was not for me despite my parent's influences in the field. I decided to take a semester to figure out what I wanted to declare as my new major by taking all general education courses. I figured I would have one shot at this if I wanted to graduate in 4-5 years. I ended up taking a health introduction class. I discovered the Peer Health Education program on campus and joined immediately to help me meet new people and get more experience in the field. Long story short, I changed my major to Health Promotion, completed 2 different peer health programs and worked as a student worker in the Health Education department. Five years later, I have been working as a Wellness Coordinator at The University of Texas at Dallas for nearly 4 years. Needless to say I found my passion and my career path and hope to continue in the filed for many years to come.

When I first became a health educator at a university I focused on the "typical" health education topics like alcohol, sexual health, nutrition and stress. As time went on the health education needs for the student body began to change. There was a greater need for prevention programming and efforts for subjects that were more related to mental health and personal safety issues. A few years ago I began offering presentations to students about consent, bystander intervention and personal safety issues that may arise in situations involving alcohol. Now, with the federal mandates of Title IX that were recently released, my daily duties are mainly focused on sexual assault prevention and bystander intervention. I have come to really enjoy informing students on the ways they can protect themselves, how they can protect others and provide a basic understanding of definitions related to sexual assault and relationship violence. I have a feeling that sexual assault prevention will continue to expand in the health education field and hope to provide the best approaches and programming possible to help prevent sexual assaults from occurring. This blog will help inform other health educators of the efforts I am currently applying to a college campus and pass along other helpful information. 

In my spare time (what is that?) I  spend time with my family and friends. I have a wonderful husband and a great circle of friends. There seems to always be a birthday, anniversary or holiday to celebrate so we are very busy nearly every weekend. I also have great friends at work so there is never a shortage of laughter and fun in my life. I hope the laughter and fun times continue for many years to come. What is life without laughter?