The University of Idaho Women’s Center received the continuation of a $299,944 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women.
The grant will fund the Campus Violence Prevention Project’s ongoing efforts to implement culturally relevant and community responsive prevention education programming as well as victim services, according to a press release from the university.
“We’re excited to work more closely with our Center for Disability Access and Resources, and with national leaders in violence prevention for diverse populations,” Lysa Salsbury, grant principal investigator and Women’s Center director, said. “Our goal is to enhance and add to existing educational programming and services to break down some of the barriers and taboos that exist for students in reporting and seeking support resources.”
Back in the early 2000s, a staff member of the Women’s Center first applied for the grant and received it. With the money, the applicant was able to fund a new office to lead violence prevention initiatives on campus. UI’s Violence Prevention Programs Office has received the grant four more times since then.
When the original applicant left the institution in 2009, the university began funding the office and position permanently. It didn’t need grant funding to keep it going.
In 2016, after no one had applied for the grant in several years, Salsbury applied for the grant again, and received it. With the money, she hopes to expand the scope of prevention education and better serve students from diverse populations.
The funding provides an opportunity to concentrate advocacy efforts on sexual assault, domestic abuse and stalking. Focusing heavily on sexual assault in the past, Salsbury thought it was time to do programming on stalking prevention.
“Stalking is a crime that often precedes other crimes,” Salsbury said. “We really need to do a lot more work to educate our campus community on stalking behaviors and dynamics.”
Salsbury also wants to focus on how to better serve students with physical and intellectual disabilities. The office is going to purchase a subscription to an app that helps hard of hearing students with real time transcription.
The work of the grant is carried out by a team called the Coordinated Community Response Team, a group of 30 individuals from all areas of campus. The team works in subcommittees to move forward initiatives made in their strategic plan.
“Our team has folks in all levels of the institution, from senior administration to faculty to student representation,” Salsbury said. “We tried to have someone who can actively represent specific student populations and also share that information with faculty and staff.”
In the past, the Women’s Center used the grant to raise awareness for consent.
“We did some focus groups and surveys and found that consent was an issue which students expressed a lot of confusion or misinformation about,” Salsbury said. “They are a lot of questions about consent if there’s alcohol or drugs involved.”
With the continuation of the grant, the office will be able to pay for an advocate from Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse to be on campus about 20 hours a week. Salsbury says the funding is critical to maintain and expand the advocacy programs developed within the last grant cycle.
Developing and implementing the project will take three years, with a goal of having programs and services fully operational by October 2023.
“We are committed to improving our campus education and response to the crime of stalking, which often co-occurs with sexual assault and dating violence,” Salsbury said. “Most stalking incidents – over 83% – are not reported to law enforcement.”
Angela Palermo can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @apalermotweets