working groups
To begin work toward our goals and objectives, staff and advisory board members affiliated with the McCluskey Center for Violence Prevention (MCVP) invite members of the U of U community to join us on a number of working groups.
Members of the working groups must:
- Commit to understanding the role of power, privilege, and oppression in relationship and sexual violence (RSV);
- Engage in on-going education, reflection, and dialogue to continue to deepen their own understanding of power and RSV;
- Focus on interrupting perpetration and harmful behaviors;
- Shift our focus from “training” to education, focusing on helping people understand the root of RSV and strategies for addressing it in their own circles of influence.
We will provide resources and support for this on-going learning and development, specific to the workgroup you choose. We anticipate working groups will meet approximately once per month and may be expected to do some reading and other tasks between monthly meetings. Staff in the MCVP will manage the logistics; we are looking for working group members to contribute to the idea generation and visioning part of the process! Depending on their level of involvement or interests, working group members can expect to spend between 3-10 hours/month on working group meetings and tasks. We understand that members’ involvement may need to ebb and flow, depending on their other responsibilities.
join a working group
working groups descriptions:
Shifting the Narrative: Campus Education Series
Members of this working group will identify topics, speakers, and timelines for engaging campus community members in on-going education related to the prevention of relationship and sexual violence among college students. We intend to maintain a monthly educational workshop throughout the life of the Center, aiming to reach a variety of campus community members and to commit to shifting the narrative about addressing RSV. Specifically, this working group will avoid focusing on teaching people how not to be a victim and instead focus on addressing power, perpetration, and culture as it relates to eradicating RSV.
community and identity-based EDUCATION
Our vision for this program is to develop educational programs with and for members of minoritized communities. Specifically, we will offer a course for graduate students to spend time learning the roots and history of RSV, especially as it relates to power, identity, and oppression. Those graduate students will then facilitate a bi-weekly curriculum with undergraduate students affiliated with specific identity or community and identity-based groups, including students with disabilities, students of color, queer and trans students, or other student groups interested in exploring RSV in their specific communities. Staff and interns affiliated with the MCVP are writing a proposal to invite students to participate in the project. Members of this working group will provide feedback to staff and interns about the proposal and curriculum and help recruit students to participate in the community and identity-based group educational sessions.
Engaging men
Members of this working group will work with staff from the Center for Student Wellness (CSW) to brainstorm ideas for a men’s engagement program. The program will be housed in the CSW, with support from the CVP. Members of this working group will review scholarship about engaging men and develop ideas and strategies for engaging men around healthy masculinities based on existing research.
preventing harm
Members of this working group will review scholarship about restorative justice, accountability, and changing behaviors to recommend a variety of educational programs and activities to assist people who have caused harm related to RSV to better understand their behavior and why others may consider it harmful. The programming will intentionally focus on non-shameful approaches to intervening with people who have caused harm to contribute to accountability and a shift in behavior, rather than punishment. The intervention will be informed by the outcomes of the perpetration study.