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Members of the Interpersonal Violence Prevention Committee at WIU. Front (l to r): Amelia Hartnett, office manager, Women's Center; Sean Dixon, coordinator, Interpersonal Violence Prevention (IVP); Justine Johnson, former coordinator, IVP; Janine Cavicchia, director, Women's Center. Back (l to r): Tim Sheridan, director, Student Judicial Programs; Diane Mayfield, victim services director, Western Illinois Regional Council Community Action Agency; Jessica Butcher, assistant to the vice president for Student Services; Jennie Hemingway, assistant director, Center for the Study of Masculinities and Men's Development; Melanie Hetzel-Riggin, associate professor, psychology; Claire Smalzer, academic adviser, Athletics; Cara Cerullo, specialist, Alcohol and Other Drugs Resource Center; Eric Arnold, program manager, domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and human trafficking, Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board Executive Institute.

Not pictured: JoAnn Hairston-Jones, health education coordinator, Beu Health Center; Andrea Henderson, director, Equal Opportunity and Access; Rica Calhoun, assistant director, Equal Opportunity and Access; Christina Buller-Marin, graduate student, psychology; Sara Dam, graduate student, college student personnel; Sydney John, victim/witness coordinator, McDonough County State's Attorney's Office; Kaila Fox, sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE); Kali Troxell, SANE; Kristy Wisslead, SANE; Matt Gass, detective, Macomb Police Dept.; Kerrie Bishop, police corporal, WIU Office of Public Safety; Nick Katz, assistant director, Student Activities; Jacque McKenna, assistant director, Student Development and Orientation; Jessica Mueller, assistant director, Student Judicial Programs; JoAnn Bloomberg, counselor, Counseling Center; Tera Monroe, residence life director, University Housing and Dining Services.
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Interpersonal Violence Prevention Initiative: Dedicated Program Provides Education, Prevention, Coordination Resources for Campus

September 13, 2012

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MACOMB, IL – Since 2010, Western Illinois University's Interpersonal Violence Prevention Initiative (IVPI) has been providing educational programming for classes, organizations and departments on campus. But, according to Sean Dixon, who has served as the IVP coordinator since July, WIU has been proactive in, and committed to, developing and strengthening programs, resources and support services for, and education about, interpersonal violence prevention for more than 35 years.

Rape awareness programming at WIU started in the mid-1970s, when Student Personnel Services (now Student Development and Orientation) and University Counseling Center staff members Nell Koester, Cari Sheets and Jo Ann Hummers initiated programming and conducted survivor support groups, which continue today. The IVPI is currently helping students by enabling the University to provide additional interpersonal violence prevention resources; to develop an improved coordinated community response (including medical and emotional care, as well as police and judicial reporting); and to increase awareness among students, faculty and staff of prevention and support resources available.

"The Initiative plays an important role in fulfilling University goals of increasing recruitment and retention rates by focusing on campus climate as it relates to safety—and perceptions of safety—as well as providing support services and resources to students, faculty and staff. It is important for students (and parents of students) to feel their institution is dedicated to addressing these issues in the open and is not shying away from difficult topics and conversations," Dixon explained. "The overriding goal of the initiative is to help reduce the prevalence and effects of interpersonal violence on campus."

The IVPI—which was established in October 2010 through a three-year grant award from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women (DOJ OVW) to reduce domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking on college campuses—has helped provide campus and community partners with new tools designed to address the critical need for comprehensive education, prevention, intervention and sanctioning of offenders of interpersonal violence. In addition to the IVP coordinator, the grant funds a graduate assistant (Carmen Stockberger, college student personnel) and a student assistant (Alicia Guzmann-Riley, senior, double majoring in law enforcement and justice administration/women's studies).

"Currently, we are involved in a variety of programs directed at classroom settings through collaboration with faculty to integrate into their curricula," Dixon said. "This varies from course to course and involves a bit of customizing for each course topic. We have presented to classrooms in multiple disciplines, including women's studies, teacher education, law enforcement and justice administration and economics."

Other programs are designed as training opportunities, Dixon noted.

"The most significant of these is bystander intervention training. We've worked with several departments, student organizations and groups, such as Greek Life, Western Illinois Athletics and University Housing and Dining Services staff and student leaders."

IVPI staff and volunteers also provide information tables at various campus venues; present at University functions and for student organizations; and help plan and coordinate such outreach and/or student-driven activities and events as Take Back the Night, Walk a Mile in Her Shoes and the Clothesline Project.

According to Stockberger, the IVPI's most recent endeavor is the development of an interactive peer education theatre group, the Western Illinois Interactive Theatre (WIIT). Stockberger said she serves as graduate adviser for WIIT.

"This student organization is designed to provide prevention education for the WIU community through in an interactive and entertaining format," she explained. "Students involved in the group will write and perform skits designed to demonstrate different scenarios Western students face and what to do to prevent a potentially dangerous situation. The skits are designed to be interactive and encourage audience participation," she added.

Dixon said the IVPI staff recognizes there are limitations to the direct presentation approach for prevention education and believes that including a more interactive approach with students can be very effective.

"We are recruiting students and conducting a training workshop this semester, and hope to have a program to offer later in the fall," Dixon said.

Another opportunity for student involvement, which will be implemented later this semester, is the Green Dot bystander intervention violence prevention strategy. Dixon noted the effort empowers each individual to do his/her small part to actively, visibly oppose violence, intervene in high-risk situations and stand up for survivors.

"Ultimately, the goal is to generate a critical mass within the WIU and Macomb communities that will result in a reduction of violence," he said.

Education and Prevention Collaboration: Past, Present, Future

According to Melanie Hetzel-Riggin, an associate professor of psychology at WIU who served as a lead writer of the grant proposal, figures from the National College Health Assessment conducted in 2008 by the American College Health Association indicated approximately 1,447 students at WIU had experienced sexually aggressive behavior or attempted/completed sexual assault. She said almost 900 had experienced stalking, while another 1,802 had likely experienced emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse within a relationship.

"My own research, which I conducted on the WIU-Macomb campus from 2006-2009, found that of the 1,276 women surveyed, 19.4 percent reported a history of domestic or dating violence, 13.3 percent reported a history of sexual aggression or assault and 32.1 percent reported being stalked," Hetzel-Riggin said.

WIU's Women's Center Director Janine Cavicchia, who also serves as the project director for the three-year grant initiative, said the initiative reflects a collaborative effort among 13 departments in student services and academic affairs, nine student organizations and four community agencies that serve individuals affected by sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking, including the Western Illinois Regional Council's Victim Services agency, campus and local police and the hospital and health services.

She noted objectives for the IVPI include:

  • developing a written set of policies and procedures regarding reporting of interpersonal violence crimes, and the coordination of services of on- and off-campus agencies when responding to these reports;
  • developing online and in-person training for campus police officers and judicial board members on laws, policies and protocols for responding to interpersonal violence victims;
  • creating and implementing a DOJ OVW-required prevention education program on interpersonal violence for all incoming students, which is currently available to all students, faculty and staff (see ivpe.wiu.edu), and is being incorporated into First Year Experience [FYE] courses;
  • providing programs that address interpersonal violence prevention for underrepresented groups, such as minority students, disabled populations, veterans, LGBTQ, etc.;
  • creating a comprehensive website (see wiu.edu/ivpi) and marketing campaign, including social media, on interpersonal violence prevention information and resources; and
  • creating an Interpersonal Violence Response Team (IVRT)

Dixon said he and the IVPI staff are looking forward to continued collaboration with existing grant partners and have started to identify potential new grant partners, such as WIU's LGBTQA Resource Center; the Center for the Study of Masculinities and Men's Development; and Men Advocating Nonviolence (MAN), a student organization that promotes men's engagement in ending interpersonal violence.

"We have many volunteer opportunities available for women and men who are passionate about ending power-based interpersonal violence," Dixon said. "These include creating publicity and awareness for the IVPI, program planning and facilitating presentations."

For more information about the IVPI at WIU, contact Dixon at (309) 298-2382 or SP-Dixon@wiu.edu.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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