One in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted during college, and only 10% of those assaults are reported. Safe Passage, a nonprofit dedicated to providing safety, education and empowerment to victims of violence, is partnering with North Idaho College (NIC) to reduce sexual and domestic violence on campus and to make the reporting process more comfortable and confidential for students.
Aided by a $30,000 Community Strategies grant from Innovia Foundation, Safe Passage will implement a program that addresses violence at the levels of individual, relationship and community. At the individual level, a part-time, campus-based advocate will provide information and confidential support to students, disseminating Safe Passage’s crisis line number and making students aware of the organization’s 24-hour response services.
At the relationship level, Safe Passage will facilitate Green Dot Bystander Intervention training, teaching influential student groups how to recognize and prevent sexual assault. One of the primary goals of this prevention education is to cultivate positive relational norms and respect for personal boundaries among students.
At the community level, Safe Passage will collaborate with NIC’s Title IX coordinator to develop a Coordinated Community Response that will increase safety for survivors and hold offenders accountable. “Safe Passage and NIC expect that by engaging a cross sector of campus leadership, positive changes at the individual and relationship levels will begin to be reflected in changes in policies, procedures and levels of commitment to violence prevention at the overall campus level,” says Chauntelle Lieske, Executive Director of Safe Passage.
