SAFER and V-Day Launch Second Annual Winter Break Challenge, Set Goal of Publishing 300 Campus Sexual Violence Policies
12/14/2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Jen Hirsch
V-Day
[email protected]
(646) 495-9723
Selena Shen/Megan McKendry
Communications Coordinators, SAFER
[email protected]
SET GOAL OF PUBLISHING 300 CAMPUS SEXUAL VIOLENCE POLICIES
NEW YORK (December 15, 2011) - Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER) and V-Day are proud to announce the launch the second annual Winter Break Challenge (WBC) which calls upon students across the country to submit their campus' sexual violence policy to the Campus Accountability Project (CAP) Policies Database.
Beginning December 15, 2011, V-Day and SAFER are urging students to participate in the Campus Accountability Project during their winter break. The Winter Break Challenge asks students to register at www.safercampus.org and submit their school using CAP's easy, step-by-step policy review form.
For the second year in a row, the CAP database has met its goal of participation from over 70 schools across the country. Currently, the database houses 233 policies in an online, public and searchable database, which details what colleges and universities are doing to prevent, reduce and respond to sexual violence on campus. The database publicly recognizes the successes of some schools' sexual assault policies while also identifying gaps in others. This winter break, V-Day and SAFER are asking current students and recent alums to submit their schools into the CAP database to reach a goal of 300 published policies.
"Young people too often fall through the cracks of their campus bureaucracy. Policy is the first step to building an effective movement on campus," said Sarah Martino, Board Chair of SAFER. "We encourage students to join SAFER and V-Day in identifying policy gaps and holding schools accountable for preventing and addressing sexual violence on campus," said Susan Celia Swan, Executive Director of V-Day.
Over the course of the month, SAFER will be releasing a series of training videos providing an overview of analysis and addressing the components of a comprehensive sexual assault policy: tone and definitions; primary prevention and risk reduction; crisis intervention and long-term survivor services; and finally, reporting, disciplinary procedures and oversight. The videos will provide suggestions for concrete improvement to your school's policy and programming to strengthen prevention efforts and improve the experiences of survivors on campus.
Students and alums can also help kick-start real change on campuses nationwide by encouraging their friends and fellow activists to submit to CAP. For those whose schools are already in the database, activists can post the Facebook event, share the Why Policy video, and engage with SAFER and V-Day across social media platforms.
Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER) is a volunteer-run organization that has been training and supporting student activists for a decade. SAFER offers comprehensive programming to support student-led movements for campus sexual assault policy reform. In addition to the Campus Accountability Project Policies Database, SAFER's website houses the Activist Resource Center, an online library of tools for organizers. SAFER also runs a national, in-person training program to help students kick-start policy reform campaigns and offers ongoing mentoring through the Activist Mentoring Program (AMP!).
V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler's award winning play The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works. In 2011, over 5800 V-Day benefit events took place produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls. To date, the V-Day movement has raised over $85 million and educated over 300 million people about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, reopened shelters, and funded over 13,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic Of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq. In 2001, V-Day was named one of Worth Magazine's "100 Best Charities" and in 2006 one of Marie Claire Magazine's Top Ten Charities.
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