Read the website for UNI's Center for Violence Prevention: http://www.uni.edu/cvp/
Pretend you are a consultant. You have been hired to evaluate UNI's CVP program. This means providing a general review of what the program is, its mission, services, and activities. This also means evaluating the scientific basis for its endeavors. What makes sense? Anything that doesn't? As a consultant your job is to show your client (me!) that you can communicate what this program is and isn't, but that you can also professionally evaluate it. You can do this by linking the literature to specific aspects of the programs activities, and thoughtfully critiquing the program by highlighting laudable parts of the program, and any parts of the program you have concerns about in terms of efficacy. You may provide recommendations for improvement or future directions.
The mission of the Center for Violence Prevention (CVP) is to build the capacity of institutions of higher education, K-12 schools, victim service agencies, law enforcement and the criminal justice system to systematically implement best practice violence prevention, victim service, and evaluation strategies in collaboration with state, family and community partners. The UNI CVP will function as a statewide training center offering annual conferences for community and campus victim-services providers, community and campus police and educators. Basically, the CVP acts as a center that provides education on violence, meaning types of violence, who experiences violence, and what to do to try and stop it. The center offers a section for people who are wondering if they are a victim of violence and who they can contact if so. A contact listed would be Violence Intervention Services and Seeds of Hope. The center also offers services for men, and their violence specifically towards women. Bystander Engagement information is also offered in the website, which teaches people how to intervene in a violent situation.
The CVP seems to offer a lot of information about violence, including definitions and theories behind violent act such as social norms. The site is very straightforward. Text book definitions of violence, bystanders, and violence against women are included in the site, but lack real-life situations in a campus such as UNI’s. A meeting for men who are interested in how to have a healthy relationship with women does make sense, especially because of the amount of violence that occurs with women in college. The site is lacking same sex violence, however. Violence between sexes is extremely common, especially off campus at local bars, parties, etc. The violence mentioned on this website offers services for UNI and it’s campus, but I believe that it should include the students actions that take place off campus, yet in the same environment such as with peers at parties or bars.
The site also offers a section over sexual misconduct and it’s policies. The website is very informative of these policies, which would be of more interest to people who have not been sexually assaulted. If a person who has been sexually assaulted comes across this website, they don’t want to click through a lot of links to get to a phone number to call for information. They will most likely be emotionally unstable, therefore the easy task of having to click through a few links to get to a contact may be seen as unbearable to someone who has actually been sexually assaulted. I would recommend to have an emergency number, website such as the ones listed under “If you are a victim,” and UNI’s police number to be presented on the first page so a victim could access the contacts easily.
After reading through the site, I was most impressed with the Bystander Engagement section. UNI is starting to recognize other forms of violence besides violence between a man and a woman, and the overall violence against women. The Bystander Engagement section lists how people should break the social norm of watching a fight happen, or that fighting is “cool.”
I understand that the center is fairly new, and that they could most likely need more time to work on things. Some things that I would recommend, besides having an immediate contact on the home page, would be: listing more ways of violence such as violence between sexes, violence against professors or adults, emotional violence, and ways to cope after experiencing violence.
UNI’s Center for Violence Prevention works with state, family, and community partners toward violence prevention, victim services, and evaluation strategies. The CVP not only works with UNI but also works with Iowa and Iowa State Universities to find the best ways to respond to and prevent interpersonal violence. The CVP also provides annual conferences for training for victim service providers, campus police, and educators. The CVP’s web page offers information and resources for victims and bystanders. Forum Theater is a link on the CVP’s web page and is an organization that teaches people strategies for getting involved in preventing and stopping violence. It also offers information Iowa’s Men’s Action Network which is an organization to men’s violence towards women. A very important part of this website is a link to UNI’s Sexual Misconduct Policy which lists behaviors of sexual assault and sexual misconduct, and how to report it. The CVP provides important guidelines for sexual misconduct policies.
Bystander engagement is a key part of violence prevention and engagement. The CVP touches on bystander and social norms approach to gender violence prevention, bystander prevention programming, and patterns of misconceptions. The CVP claims that bystander engagement will provide bystander education and primary violence prevention strategies. All of the goals listed on this page are great and could be very helpful but there it does not state how the education for bystander engagement will be applied. How will they reach a large amount of people? How will they reach people who are not aware that gender violence is a problem? How will they reach people who say they are not interested or it doesn’t relate to them? The CVP needs to provide specific things they will do to reach the masses. I think one good way to teach bystander engagement is through Forum Theater. A good way to get students to go to these performances is by teachers offering extra credit for attending.
I like the section for victims because it is not cluttered or to overwhelming. It provides important and helpful websites and phone numbers. One link takes you to UNI’s Violence Prevention Services page which is organized well and information is easy to find. When I clicked on the Seeds of Hope page it took me to some free search domain which was obviously the wrong place. Any resources for victims need to be up to date as they may feel like they need urgent help but the phone number is also listed.
The most well done section of the CVP website is the sexual misconduct policy. Sexual misconduct policies must include rights of the victim, a difference between sexual assault and sexual harassment, discuss the involvement of drugs and alcohol, include that the accused have rights that should be available in the student conduct code, include confidentiality standards, provide meaning, content, and context of prohibited behaviors, and much more. UNI’s sexual misconduct policy is very thorough and detailed. It is important for a victim or anyone at the university to read and be familiar with.
The CVP’s mission is well thought out but there are many aspects to it. As the CVP may have plans for its mission, the specific ways of implementation need to be provided. They need to talk about how they will reach people in order to achieve their goals. Also, the CVP should provide more ways of getting involved. They should list an ongoing calendar of events with times and locations to attend. This is something very simple that could help get more people involved in violence prevention and intervention. Getting out awareness of the program and its components and activities is the key to greater involvement.
The CVP program’s mission has many different functions. The CVP is used to help others understand in a more educational sense how to prevent violence and work with those already in need of intervention. Also included is training in a wide array of events, all seeming to provide better information to the public. The program appears to be implemented at three different universities in Iowa, one of course being UNI. Overall, the idea of prevention of violence is the most important factor of the CVP, followed by responding to violence.
There are many other services and activities included in the CVP program. Some I have even seen on campus, due to a classroom activity or promotion of some sort. The forum theatre is something helpful to college students, due to the personal interaction and similar age group. The forum theatre has a group of other college-age students engage in a scenario where those watching identify what was wrong (for example, having sex while under the influence) and therefore take action in changing a possibly dangerous situation. This sort of hand-on thinking gives people a more realistic approach and help to understand the more “gray” areas of violence. There are numbers included on the website for those who wish to contact the CVP (for any purpose) located at UNI, along with staff members’ numbers and identifications. Another phone number included within the website is specifically for those seeking help, under the “If you are a victim” title. The first website with this specific title was informative and welcoming.
The last area of services included in the CVP website is the Men’s programs and the policies/definitions. These all have explanations of sorts which will help others new to the website understand better. Beginning with bystander engagement, it has a short narrative explaining more about violence and what norms and misperceptions are associated with violence. While reading this, I think it was definitely helpful in giving someone a brief introduction to a better understanding, and was short enough to keep someone’s attention. The sexual misconduct policy is most assuredly helpful to anyone who is confused or unsure about what exactly whether their course of action is correct in certain situations, and also whether someone treated that individual correctly. The last one, which is the Men’s programs, includes numbers, names, and addresses to contact along with helpful information on how to join this group. It even includes time and dates of meetings along with placement.
While reading through the website, I noticed there was not very much information for whom to contact if someone wanted to help the abuser. Much of what the website was devoted to was helping the victim and finding those who want to support their cause. This is by no means harmful, but sometimes there are those who do realize they need help to stop abusing and also those who know an abuser and want to find him/her help. It would just seem beneficial to have more information included in this area of violence. Another area that needs to be update is the seeds of hope link, because it is obviously outdated. I think the site should be checked on more often to make sure everything on the site is copacetic.
In evaluating its scientific basis, most of this seems like information one has learned throughout their courses in college (related to violence, of course). Some of the information does seem like common sense, but that is the one thing that seems to be the easiest to forget in situations that include violence. Also included are the names of people with Ph. D references, which might not have much actual importance to the CVP program, but I believe it reassures people to know professionals are behind an operation.
The CVP (Center for Violence Prevention) program at UNI is a program that seeks to reduce the violence women can experience both on campus and off campus. This program works with the other universities in Iowa to find and implement the best violence prevention practices, victim services, and evaluation strategies to all universities, k-12 schools, victim service agencies, law enforcement, and the criminal justice system as a whole. To do this, there are several different activities that are funded by the CVP. One of them is the Bystander Engagement Program. This program basically teaches bystanders how to respond and try to prevent violence. Another program is called Forum Theatre. This is a play-based program that uses the audience to change the situation and outcome. The audience must tell the actors what to do and find solutions to the problems presented. There is also a program directed at men, called the Iowa Men’s Action Network. This program seeks to educate men about violence against women. The program also tries to get men to live out their belief that violence against women is not acceptable by modeling it, speaking out against it, and, tying into the Bystander Program, trying to stop it if they see it happening. The last program the CVP has is called the Affirmative Consent Program. This is basically a DVD that explains why men should never take “no” for “yes” and always make sure that they only pursue sexual activities where there is no doubt about consent.
These programs are all unique and could be very helpful. We know that bystanders often don’t help because of several reasons: there are others around (diffusion of responsibility); they feel it’s not “their” place; and they are not sure what to do. This program does a great job of showing people how these concerns should not hold them back from helping someone get out of a violent situation. They also provide tips on how and what to say to people in violent situations. Bystanders often have more power then they think when it comes to stopping violence and this program helps them tap into that. The Forum Theatre is the program that sounds the best to me. By having the audience participate, they are making it more fun and more thought-provoking then just having them watch a play. It also engages the audience in critical thinking, which they can then use in other situations. By using real-world examples, the plays also help people translate what happens in the play to situations they may see, either in the present or the future. Iowa Men’s Action Network is also a valuable program. Since men are typically the ones to use violence against women, it is important that those men who do think it’s wrong stand up and say so. Also, as we discussed in class, violent and abusive men are much more likely to listen to other men when they tell them to stop. For men to learn how and what to say to other men and for them to learn how to use societal pressure to effect change is a very novel, but very much needed, thing. The last program, Affirmative Consent Program, is probably the least favorite of the programs for me personally. However, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have merit. It is important for people to know that “no” means “no”, and for someone to be able to watch a DVD at their leisure is nice. Also, the points that the professor in the DVD makes are good ones, and since it is short (a little over a half an hour), it is more likely to be watched by a lot more people.
There are some shortcomings I would like to address. A couple of them have already been mentioned by other students, but they are worth noting again. One is that the Seeds of Hope link is broken. The website definitely needs to be kept more up-to-date, especially since it is a link for victims of sexual assault. Also, this was not mentioned, but it really bothered me to find quite a few grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors on the website. This is a college-run website, and while I don’t expect perfection, I didn’t expect to encounter so many obvious errors either. Perhaps by checking it more frequently they can fix these errors and make it more professional. The other shortcoming that was mentioned was the fact that there is nothing there for men who want help to stop their abusive behavior. I think that this would be a very important and helpful link that could be added. It would definitely enhance the program as a whole, especially since you can’t join the Men’s Action Network if you display violent tendencies. Also, I found the whole website to be rather dry and quite short. I was expecting a little more explanation and a little more information about violence, particularly violence on campuses. I think it would be very beneficial if there was a link added that put in some stats and also some general information, like warning signs, and tips to get out of a violent relationship. Overall, the program is great with some really, really good aspects. Most of the problems seem to be with the website, so fixing those would just make the program that much more attractive.
The mission of the UNI’s Center for Violence Prevention program is “to build the capacity of institutions of higher education, K-12 schools, victim service agencies, law enforcement and the criminal justice system to systematically implement best practice violence prevention, victim service, and evaluation strategies in collaboration with state, family and community partners. The UNI CVP will function as a statewide training center offering annual conferences for community and campus victim-services providers, community and campus police and educators. CVP will support the development of best practices for responding to and preventing interpersonal violence at Iowa’s three state universities.” Overall, the CVP offers education for all people in regards to what violence is, different types of violence, who experiences violence, why violence occurs, and how people can help to stop violence from occurring. The CVP offers a variety of services and information related to all different types of violence for people who have witnessed violent events, people who have experienced violence, and people who are concerned for a loved one’s safety.
One of the activities the CVP holds is called SAVE Forum Actors Program. The purpose of Forum Theatre is to make people more aware of issues or topics they may have never thought of previous to attending. Forum Theatre creates an atmosphere which creates audience participation through group discussion, role-playing, and shared experiences. During the workshop, audience members come up and act the way they think they should/would in preventing or stopping violence as they see it happening. After this, group discussion takes place.
The website also offers information about different approaches to handling violence. One approach is called the Bystander Approach. This approach is not targeted to people on an individual level; instead, it attempts to help all people become more aware or the issue of sexual and gender violence. This approach focuses on five main things: 1. increase awareness of gender violence; 2. increase recognition that gender violence is an issue; 3. increase responsibility of this issue; 4. develop skills people can use to intervene in violence situations; and 5. increase recognition of intervention strategies. This section was the one that I thought was really impressive to include on the site. UNI is one school that is beginning to recognize and promote awareness that many types of violence occur in the world and not just between opposite-sex individuals. The second approach offered on the website is the Social Norms Approach. According to this approach, behavior is influenced by wrong perceptions of how people within a certain social group think and act.
The link to services and information for victims was simply and easily browseable. I think it’s important to include information for victims whether it be directly from the site or links for them to access with additional help. I clicked on the Violence Intervention Services at UNI website link which took me right there. The Seeds of Hope link did not take me to the proper place, and this issue should be addressed. I agree with Holly and that there needs to be emergency help numbers for people to access on the home page and/or on the “If you are a victim” link. This way, people who need to get help can do so in a timely manner instead of having to browse around to find it.
The link to ways men can get involve in efforts to decrease and end sexual/gender violence on college campuses, in K-12 schools, and in our communities I thought was informative. I think it’s very important to get males involved in this issue because this is not just a female issue. One thing I think could benefit this site is information on same sex violence because violence happens to all people and between all people.
Including a link to the sexual misconduct policy is another important concept to cover on a violence prevention website. The link was very informative and would it would be beneficial for all students to read.
One thing that I would have liked to see is a calendar of events or some other page listing what types of activities (including where and when) the CVP is currently or will eventually offer. I would also like to see a link to specific ways all people in the community can help the CVP and the fight against violence. Since the CVP is on campus, I thought there would be more information relating to acts of violence on UNI’s campus. Maybe a collaborative effort between the CVP and UNI Public Safety Department could yield some information.
The overall mission of the Center for Violence Prevention (CVP) is, as quoted by the website http://www.uni.edu/cvp/, to, "build the capacity of institutions of higher education, K-12 schools, victim service agencies, law enforcement and the criminal justice system to systematically implement best practice violence prevention, victim service, and evaluation strategies in collaboration with state, family and community partners. The UNI CVP will function as a statewide training center offering annual conferences for community and campus victim-services providers, community and campus police and educators. CVP will support the development of best practices for responding to and preventing interpersonal violence at Iowa’s three state universities."
In order to properly accomplish their mission, the CVP has several different types of programs implemented to serve their community.
First of all, they have a Bystandard Engagement program. The main focus of this part of the program is to help educate the public about gender violence and what they can do as individuals to intervene.
Another program they have is a program specifically direced towards men as, sadly, men are the main perpetrators of sexual violence in our community. The goal of this program is to help educate men in sexual violence and what they can do to prevent it. This program includes the group the Iowa Men's Action Network, which meets right on the UNI campus.
Overall, the website makes sense to me. They clearly lay out the goals of the CVP and list resources and links to their programs, as well as the sexual misconduct policy that we have in place here at the University of Northern Iowa.
The one thing that I think they could have made a little bit more clear was the contact information for the people who are victims of sexual violence or fear that someone they know is a victim of sexual violence. They give only a couple resources, which is great, but is it enough? It seems as though there should be many more sources listed on the website for people to get help. Also, I think they could have made the location of the CVP a little bit easier to locate. You have to go all the way to the contact page on the website before you can even find out where the CVP is. The CVP would be much more effective if they are more clear on where they are located.
Another reccomendation I have for the website would be making the program descriptions more...quite frankly...descriptive. It would be nice to see in greater detail what the program is like, when and where they meet, who runs them, contact information for the people that head the programs (as it is not clear if the people that are listed under the contact information actually run and moderate the programs) and to get an idea of the time commitments you have to be able to meet.
Overall, however, I think this is a great website and most definitely portrays the CVP in a great light.
UNI’s CVP program is part of a statewide collaboration between state, family, community members to increase Iowa’s state funded universities, K-12 schools, victim service agencies, law enforcement agencies, and the criminal justice system’s ability to systematically implement best practice violence prevention, victim service, and evaluation strategies. The CVP at UNI will focus their efforts on training, developing best practices for responding to and preventing interpersonal violence, in addition to offering annual conferences. These conferences will be geared toward community and campus victim-service providers, community and campus police, as well as educators.
Most violence prevention and intervention programs around the country are geared specifically towards victims and potential victims (e.g. self-defense, women’s shelters, etc). UNI’s CVP program however takes a very unique approach to this societal issue. This program takes on a bystander education model and a social norms approach in the prevention of sexual violence and all forms of gender violence. Bystander education involves teaching all individuals how to intervene and take responsibility in situations that involve violence and potentially harmful behaviors. This can entail interrupting a situation that could lead to an assault before it happens, intervening appropriately when an offensive behavior occurs, speaking out against social norms that support sexual and gender violence, as well as learning how to be an effective and supportive ally to survivors of violence and abuse. Bystander prevention programming focuses on five goals: 1) increasing awareness of gender violence, 2) increase recognition that it is a problem, 3) increasing ownership/responsibility of the issue, 4) developing the proper skills base to intervene, and 5) increasing recognition of such intervention. I think the bystander model is a particularly important aspect of violence prevention. Although all of us have heard of interpersonal violence and know its wrong, we often times brush it aside or fail to give it much thought, especially if we ourselves are not directly affected by this issue. By ignoring or failing to intervene in potentially harmful situations we are inadvertently supporting interpersonal violence.
In terms of the social norms approach being taken by UNI’s CVP program, the focus is to educate others on the common misperceptions of interpersonal violence that help perpetuate the problem. More specifically, a social norms approach argues that behavior is often influenced by incorrect perceptions of how others within our social group think and act. So for instance, people often times think that all college students or all young adults engage in unhealthy drinking behaviors. I know when I was an undergraduate, I always got skeptical looks or laughs when I would tell people that I rarely drank and that I have never been drunk in my entire life. People have this perception that ALL young adults, especially college students, party hard and drink heavily all the time. UNI’s CVP program aims to decrease problem behavior and increase the prevalence of healthy behaviors by correcting misperceptions of group norms. Their website lists three patterns of misperceptions which include: 1) pluralistic ignorance , 2) false consensus, and 3) false uniqueness.
Another way UNI’s CVP program implements their bystander model is through the Forum Theatre created by Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal. The goal of the Forum Theatre is to make people more aware of problems and issues they previously had not considered. The actors in the Forum Theatre act out scenarios designed to stimulate audience participation through discussion and interactive role-playing where audience members act out how they would intervene or handle that particular situation. Afterwards, everyone discusses the issues of the scenario and the solutions acted out by audience members.
As I previously stated, UNI’s CVP program takes on a different approach to interpersonal violence prevention and intervention. Instead of focusing on how men are the perpetrators and females are the helpless victims, this program emphasizes the importance of men in the prevention and intervention process. The Iowa Men’s Action Network is an organization whose mission is to inspire all men in Iowa to join women in the promotion of healthy and respectful relationships in all settings and to model peaceful and respectful behaviors with each other in addition to teaching youth the skills necessary to live a lifestyle free from abuse.
Overall I think UNI’s CVP program is the most comprehensive and unique violence prevention/intervention programs I have ever encountered. However, it remains to be seen how efficacious this program turns out to be in the long run. Therefore one of the things I would add to this program is a yearly evaluation progress report of sorts to assess the efficacy of the program. For example, what is the current and future incidence of violence before/after the implementation of this program at all 3 state universities? What are community members, victim service agencies, law enforcement, and the criminal justice system doing to aid in the efforts described by the program? What can be done to increase program efficiency? How would program short falls be addressed? All of these things are important to keep in mind in order to ensure the success of UNI’s CVP program.
The UNI Center for Violence Prevention web page is neatly organized. It features tabs on promoting bystander action in situations of violence, what to do if you are a victim of violence, UNI's sexual misconduct policy, and a few other things. The main problem with this web page is that it focuses on solely sexual/dating violence and gender violence. There are no resources for physical or psychological violence from roommates, friends, or other acquaintances. Also, the page is rather sexist in that there is a page for men's programs on preventing gender violence. This implies not only that men are the only perpetrators of violence, but also that they only commit gender-oriented or sexually violent behaviors.
However, sexual violence and gender violence are the main types of violence that occur on college campuses. It is important to keep students informed on what is and is not acceptable behavior. In the UNI sexual misconduct policy, it addresses the issue of sexual activity and alcohol. According to this policy, an individual may not give consent to sex if under the influence of alcohol. This is especially important because as we learned in class, giving later consent when under the influence of any given substance is not an acceptable "yes" response, especially if the individual previously did not give consent to sex. This is probably one of the biggest problem on college campuses, due to the large population of college-aged people who drink alcohol. One thing that I would like to see added to this page is statistics, facts, and myths about dating or sexual violence.
In my opinion, physical violence (especially between men) can be a large problem on college campuses. This is especially a problem when alcohol is involved. I have seen more of this on campus as a student at the University of Iowa than I have here at UNI. There were "bar fights" between men nearly every time I had been to any bars. The more recent problem at UNI to focus on is the violence that is seeping into Cedar Falls from Waterloo. Bars have already attempted to decrease this by making everyone who is under 21 show a university identification card in order to get into the bar. I think the UNI web page should also include racial, physical, and other types of violence. Also, "cyber-bullying" (bullying via technology, mainly social networking websites) has become a large problem amongst young adults, and it would be beneficial for UNI's Center for Violence Prevention to also include information on these topics.
A particular incident of extreme violence that sticks out to me is the story of Treye Blythe. Treye was at a party in Cedar Falls near campus. One of his friends had gotten into a fight with a young African American man that revolved around an alleged racial slur. Treye stepped in to break the young men apart, and was stabbed to death by the African American man, Joseph Johnson. This occurred in August, 2006. Treye was an incoming freshman at UNI and was only 18 when he died. His story is tragic and teaches an important lesson about racial and party violence in our local community. Here is the Courier page if anyone would like to read more.
http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_1666d785-9062-5422-bf4d-099813894f22.html
In all, I think the Center for Violence Prevention page of UNI has wonderful information for students, including a strict policy on sexual misconduct. While all of these topics are important, it would also be equally as important to include more recent and problematic types of violence that are occurring in Cedar Falls and near the UNI campus. The current web page is very organized and mostly makes sense. I think clearer definitions of different types of violence should be included, along with more information about them. Also, I know that UNI offers a self-defense class. I think it would be beneficial to advertise this class on the violence prevention web page, in order to get students more active and involved. In the future, it may even be beneficial to make incoming freshmen students at UNI take a mandatory course on violence, much like Alcohol EDU. Linking this web page to our textbook information, the Center for Violence Prevention may want to include some of the findings about violence that we have learned through this class. For example, the findings on how violence affects victims' lives negatively.
The Center for Violence Prevention website offers positive information regarding violence and how to handle particular situations. Something I found particularly interesting and was unaware that the Center was initiating was the Bystander Engagement. This program focuses on teaching people how to take a positive role in violent situations when they see that violence could occur to reduce the chance of violence occurring. The point of the program is to increase awareness of gender violence, recognizing that it is a problem, increasing ownership of the issue, developing skills to appropriately intervene in situations, and increase the ability to recognize when to utilize such interventions. The goal appears to be teaching individuals to be knowledgeable and aware of gender violence and allowing people the skills to assist in necessary situations.
A positive aspect of the website is that it includes relevant and important definitions related to this subject. Pluralistic ignorance, false consensus, and false uniqueness are all discussed and defined for those looking at the website. These ideas are defined which is positive for individuals to understand how they may be involved in their own personal group setting or what they may witness others in.
The site also provides information on the forum theater and SAVE Forum Actors. I think making this a more public issue can be beneficial and having information available on the site for how others to get involved or to be a part in any way is exciting.
Information provided about the staff is informative and appropriate. Giving this kind of descriptive information allows others interested in the Center to have a better understanding for who is providing services and running the programs.
The victim section provides numbers and links to access if necessary. It may be nice to have other community resources available in this section as well. Obviously providing UNI’s information for victims is appropriate, but they may want other assistance outside of UNI, but may not know how or who to contact.
The section on men’s programs is positive I feel. I know UNI has been trying to implement a male program to decrease violence for some years now, and this would be the appropriate place to do it. Allowing a space for men to be a part of a team to reduce violence on campus and in the community is positive on several levels.
Overall, the site appears organized and informative. It would be nice to see other community resource information available in a miscellaneous section or something. I say this only because victims may want to access outside resources from UNI and may not know the area very well. Even if they do not want to access services through UNI, they should be allowed the opportunity to be aware of other agencies that could assist them.
The Center for Violence Prevention (CVP) program at UNI seeks to prevent violence, provide victim service, and implement evaluation strategies in collaboration with family, state, and community partners. They serve as a statewide training center for victim service providers, police, and educators. They hold annual conferences. They support the development of best practices for responding to and preventing interpersonal violence at Iowa’s three state universities. They offer services to help achieve their goals.
The first and extremely important service is Bystander Engagement. The CVP attempts to get away from the traditional sexual violence prevention programs. They see it as important to shift a new prevention. They are currently doing this by engaging in the Mentors in Violence Prevention Strategies, bystander education, and student leadership. They do not want people to view sexual violence as something only men do to women. The bystander education program is a strategy that teaches everyone how to intervene and take responsibility in situations that may or already do involve violence. It helps people realize ways to interrupt situations that have not turned violent yet, intervene when the behavior occurs, speak out against social norms that support this violence, and learn skills to be effective and supportive allies to survivors of violence and abuse.
Another program they employ is the Forum Theatre. This allows actors to create scenarios that will result in violence, which include interactive role-playing by the audience. The audience members can share experiences, discuss, and learn ways to intervene in these situations. The audience members can try their own ways to stop the violence until they feel satisfied. They then can discuss the scene’s issues. This is a very important program that lends a hands-on view into violence. It is important for people to learn how to avoid violence or stop it when it begins. There is a problem with bystanders not doing anything to help situations such as these. Typically this is because they don’t know what to do, but this program helps them learn to recognize these problems and how to effectively handle them.
They also have a men’s program that you can get involved in. This is supported by all three state supported universities. They held a meeting for men to actively engage in confronting men’s violence against women and girls. It is aimed at all forms of violence and tries to promote healthy, peaceful, and respectful relationships.
There is also a page for victims. It is not a long page, but it gives the numbers to the UNI’s Violence Intervention Services and Seeds of Hope. It also provides the websites for these. I think it would be important for this page to have emergency numbers on it for those who are victims, especially the number for the UNI police. They could also benefit from having a page for people who feel they are or know someone who is an abuser. Many times these offenders want help for themselves and providing that would be a great improvement.
They include the Sexual Misconduct Policies for the three universities. I think that this is important for the clear definition of the different acts. It is also important that they note the rights of the victims. They make clear distinction on how to treat victims and perpetrators. I do think that they should have a lot of the information listed in the policy, such as numbers and resources, easily listed on the website. There was several steps to get to the policy and then you have to sort through it.
For future improvement, I think that they should make the page more inviting. It is a pretty standard page and is easily navigated, but seems dry and boring to me. The person should feel like they are somewhere safe and welcoming. They also should provide a calendar of events or a way to use the Forum Theatre besides participating. They should have it available for other places, such as schools and businesses. I already mentioned that they should have a section for abusers. I also think it might be good to implement clear lists of possible “red flags” of violence, that way people are more prepared for those situations from the site and program. I think they should have some statistics on the prevalence of sexual abuse, especially the college level since it’s a college campus program. I think they did a good job at making sense, especially in their discussion of theory of violence. They are taking a bigger approach at helping people correct misconceptions that lead to violence. I do think that they should provide more research examples to support their theories. They discuss the theory and list patterns of misconceptions but I do not have a way to look up where they got the information or how it is used in other situations. I would have liked to have a list of resources for these. It would also help to give their theory and program more scientific basis. It seems, at least from the lack of sources, that they are theoretical and not empirical in nature. I think a good program implements research results. I also think that even though they say they are getting away from traditional views of men abusing women, they focus quite a bit on it. Only once did I see it mentioned that men could help stop violence among men. They need to focus not only on intimate violence, but have a broader view of violence. Man-man and woman-woman violence are also problematic and deserve the same prevention efforts and awareness. I think it is a great beginning to a wonderful program, but there are still many things to be grasped.
UNI's CVP is attempting to reconstruct the current trends in handling and preventing violence. Their mission is to build the capacity of institutions of higher education, K-12 schools, victim service agencies, law enforcement and the criminal justice system to systematically implement best practice violence prevention, victim service, and evaluation strategies in collaboration with state, family and community partners. I interpret this mission as better unifying and preparing these institutions to prevent and intervene in violence. When there is a community systems approach in place, the best resources from each of these institutions will be able to be used in order to create the best violence program possible. The matter of violence can not be addressed by individual institutions. They all must work together to create the best and most successful program possible. UNI's CVP is using the community institutions and encouraging them to work together so all aspects of violence may be addressed.
This program offers men's programs, which are fairly out of the ordinary when combating violence. These programs encourgage men and women to create respectful and equal relationships with one another. They also stress the importance of men standing up to other men when they see violence or inappropriate behavior. Men model good behavior around other men and set a standard of appropriate, respectful behavior.
Another program UNI's CVP implements is the Forum Theatre. The website states, "The goal of Forum Theatre is to make people more aware of some problems that they may have not considered previously." They act out skits of situations in which there is a victim. They demonstrate how another can intervene on behalf of the victim in these situations. This is somewhat implementing socia learning theory into a program. They are attempting to teach people how to intervene in situations in which a victim may be in danger.
This program is stressing the importance of bystander intervention and how we as a community can begin to reinvent current social norms regarding man/woman relationships and violence. They also discuss patterns of miscponceptions. These regard social misconceptions about normal behavior. I really liked the first page on bystander engagement, because I feel this is an important part of changing behavior toward violence, especially in public spaces. I think many feel violence between spouses or partners is a private matter, but this program takes great steps to educating people that violence is and should be a public problem in which others step in and intervene.
This program also lays out the universities policies on sexual misconduct. It is critical to have a policy on this due to different perceptions of violence among indivudals. I feel this policy could be more clearly defined. There are some issues left out and I could see how gray areas are present in the policy. It looks like, by the last section, that the policy makers as well know there needs to be more policy development. I feel that if they have general considerations for policy development, then they should continue working on these policies and solidify the standards of the university on sexual misconduct.
This program has a unique perspective and is moving toward a more community oriented prevention plan. Instead of merely intervening on an individual level, they are pushing for intervention at a group level and redefining social norms for behavior. I think they have a great start to a very influential program. One aspect I feel they are underestimating is how difficult it is to promote social change among large masses of people. Perhaps other programs focus on individual persons because it is a quicker fix to the problem. I agree with the CVP in that there needs to be a social change to change misperceptions and allow people to speak out against violence. It will be interesting to see in the years to come if this program can cause change and bring about a change in violence prevention.
The UNI’s Center for Violence Prevention is a brand new program that already has received a lot of attention in Iowa. Its main goal and purpose is to spread violence prevention awareness and policy throughout Iowa, and getting the community involved. I think that they key aspect of this program is the collaboration between the state, the community, and family as a source of support and involvement. The CVP also provides a basis for training and education in the area of violence prevention. The CVP seems to have covered a lot of ground in the few months that they have been established, and their website provides a lot of really useful information.
I thought it was really great that the CVP included a section on men’s violence prevention program. While it does seem a little sexist to single men out, I think it is good to recognize that men do want to have a part in reducing aggression and violence in our community. I also think that it is possible that a group of men can make a large impact in reducing violence in our community, as many perpetrators are men, they may be able to better connect with those who are participating in unwanted violent behaviors. The men’s program is also straight forward in pointing out that they are working together with the women’s groups and the rest of the community, to strengthen the overall effectiveness of the program there needs to be collaboration between all of the prevention strategies and organizations. The men’s program link of the CVP website provides a lot of detailed information, right down to what it means to be a member and how people can get involved. I think that they are taking a really great approach to their program, and that their methods are well thought out and are likely to be effective both in gaining new members as well as reducing violence rates.
Another aspect of the CVP website that I really liked was the Bystander Engagement tab. Their approach matches really well with the theories both in our text book and that we have discussed in class. In addition to the theories discussed in this violence class, a lot of the things in the Bystander Engagement program also highlight issues and topics that I have discussed in other psychology classes. Thinks like diffusion of responsibility, false uniqueness, and social norms are all terms that I’m sure many of us have heard before. It’s great that this program seems to have really created a combination of approaches to solve this problem, and done enough research on the topic of violence that their methods are likely to make a difference in campus safety and the safety of our community. The psychological approach that the program takes is really one that will connect with both victims, perpetrators, and others in the community who may be involved in witnessing or suspecting a violent situation.
The one area where I thought the site could use a little improvement is the victim’s tab. I feel like there is a lot more information that could have been available here. While it does provide the link to Seeds of Hope and other helpful sites, I think that adding more information about our campus specifically would help victims feel more comfortable using those sources. Also, as we have discovered through other blog posts, there are ways of making the website undetectable from abusers who may be looking through website history. I think that adding little details like that would really help to make the website more useful for abuse victims. I also think that giving out more information about what the members of CVP on campus can do for victims would help increase the safety of our campus. I like that they have a lot of information on the faculty involved, because it helps to deepen the connection to anyone looking at the site. This means it may give the victims more courage to reach out for help or become more involved in the program.
The Center for Violence Prevention, or CVP, is relatively new to UNI's campus. The purpose of the center is to provide services geared towards the prevention of gender violence(mainly focusing on violence by men towards women) instead of focusing on intervention after violence has already occured. The methods that are being employed were developed based on research showing these types of preventitive programs could reduce the occurance of gender violence. Programs are not only being used here at UNI's campus, but at all three of Iowa's state colleges. Much of the program is being funded by government grants.
The CVP sponsors a men's group which focuses on changing the way men think about gender violence. Their belef is that many perpetrators of gender violence are subject to thinking patterns that may lead them to believe they are acting within social norms. The group focuses on changing the way men view these types of violence so they not only act in an acceptable manner, but will stand up against another who is or may commit a violent act towards a woman. The goal is to prevent gender violence by teaching men what is acceptable behavior before they may find themselves trying to make a decision in a delicate situation. Men are supported in their persuit of healthy non-violent relationships. They are also coached to stand up for those who are in violent relationships and speak out against gender violence.
Another way in which the CVP is working to prevent possible violence is by their bystander awareness program. This is geared towards both men and women to promote bystanders to intervene when violence takes place. There are workshops offered in which audience members can roleplay a scene involving two people in a voilent confrentation. Participants are asked to comeup with effective ways to diffuse a situation, assist the victim in getting out of the situation, and other such scenarios. The goal is to provide the average bystander with the tools to prevent further violence.
There is alot of reserach which supports the methods being employed at the CVP. Obviously because it is a new approach there may be quite some time before we can tell how big of an impact this sort of program may have on those who participate. It would make alot of sense to continue with prevention efforts if they show to be effective rather than place the emphasis on intervention and treatment after violence has occured. Many people would never need to become victims for this sort of program to be used.
I wondered if these programs were offered to incoming students to campus, or how information on what they offered was distributed. Many campus groups use the bullitin boards for information distribution, and i wondered if this was the case with the CVP? I think these programs have a lot to offer, not only to make campus safer but to raise a generation of men who do take pride and ownership in the types of relationships they and their peers persue.
I am immediately impressed with the stated mission of the new Center for Violence Prevention (CVP) at the University of Northern Iowa. They not only want to target prevention and services on the college level, but tying the resources to the community as well. The goal is to develop the best practices for responding to and preventing interpersonal violence. The center will also function as a statewide training center offering annual conferences for both community and campus officials to further their education about services and prevention. One highlight is that it is not only focused on the University of Northern Iowa, but all three state universities.
The Bystander Engagement section draws attention to how the societal views on violence prevention have changed. No longer is the only suggestion that women try to protect themselves. It now puts some of the responsibility on the rest of us, the bystanders who may witness an incident in action. If brought to light with the correct education, this could greatly enhance the amount of knowledge spread throughout the public. This knowledge can lead to more individuals being willing to and knowing what to do in order to step in when needed. By all means, not everyone is going to feel comfortable intervening, but supplying that information at least gives them the resource in case they do choose to use it. This section does well in informing the public about their sense of responsibility to know we can help if put in the situation where assistance is needed.
The concept of Forum Theatre again touches on placing the individual bystander in the position of supplying support and help. By staging an encounter where violence could occur, they then pause the action and make it interactive by pulling an audience member in to be the intervention and prevent the violence. This can bring the person out of their comfort zone, but it is done with the end goal of creating the confidence to do the right thing and step in. I believe that once people see it done in a smaller scale and in a protected environment, they may be more willing to step in when a real situation occurs. The only criticism I have is that some individuals may not be able to take the same mindset into a real situation and in that sense, it is only helpful when they are faced with the actors and not a true threat. I do fully support the mission behind these actors who take it upon themselves to try and educate in order to prevent further sexual violence.
This site does well in providing further websites and phone numbers to victims of abuse both on the campus scale and throughout the Cedar Valley. The two directors seem very well educated on the topic of violence and are very dedicated to the cause of furthering knowledge and preventing future violence. I appreciate seeing the section devoted to making men more involved and aware. I understand that it is a lesser known area, and hopefully more will grow in the future. Programs have been held to educate men on the importance of preventing violence, and I think those will continue as well.
The section on sexual misconduct policies gives a link to the policy for all three state institutions. It’s interesting to note that all three have been revised in the last four years. This shows that we are being sure to keep them updated and current for our college campuses. My only recommendation here is that the page be a little more organized with the bullet points to be more easily read. I have worked with Harry Brod and the SAVE group to create a consent panel a few years ago, so I know the importance of making sure college students understand the policy. More of these panels or talks should be put on to ensure the policy is as publicized as possible. Unfortunately I think many students do not know the details of our sexual misconduct policy, and therefore are not aware of the consequences of what might happen.
This topic hits close to home as a very dear friend of mine, a UNI student, is currently dealing with a recent sexual assault on campus. The idea of having the sexual misconduct policy as publicized as possible is intriguing in that I want everyone possible to see it and know exactly the rules. Seeing her go through this has sparked my interest in making sure all our UNI students, especially men, understand the policy so they know what will happen if they think they can slip through a loophole. I don’t want to see any more legal fights like this develop; I want it to be something set in stone that he cannot try to get out of. I have hope that the new spotlight put on the CVP will make it even more on the minds of people on campus and statewide. The more knowledge supplied, the more we can change things. I want to see lots more publicity for the CVP so that everyone possible knows about it.
This site explains the details of it's purpose and it's intentions very well. It states the rules and the actions that will be taken if those rules are violated or someone is reported as committing or being a victim of sexual assault. However, I feel this site doesn't show enough attention to the male as a victim. Yes, it is rare that a males reports being sexually assaulted, but if the case does happen to be reported it should be made clear of the actions that will be taken and the assurance that justice will be served. It has a lot of upside to the program with actors involved with acting out skits for students that provide them with example situations and the actions that should be taken if they or a friend happens to be a victim at some point and time.
I feel though, that something else should be done to make certain that more students see these skits so that they are made more aware that these cases do happen more than most assume that thy don't. You have to take into consideration what all ethnic groups and other groups (sexual orientation) like to attend so that they can reach as many students as possible. This is one way I feel that can improve CVP's efficacy on campus. Overall, I like what it represents and would definitely do anything in my power to see that it remains functioning so that it can continue to alert students, but also help them to feel a little more comfortable and secure while on campus knowing that they have support away from home.