Increasing Participation in Sexual Assault Prevention Programs by Blogger Abigail

I am lucky to attend a University that has a program in place called GreenDot, which trains individuals on a voluntary basis to become what they call “active bystanders”. An active bystander is a person sees a bad situation from happening, and does whatever they can to make sure the situation is avoided. Some techniques include confronting the situation or creating a distraction. In the cases of sexual assault, an active bystander can play an important third party role to help the victim get out of the situation. The catchphrase for GreenDot is “Billikens Look Out For Each Other”. While the university has struggled to require students to complete the day-long training, incentives through student organizations have encouraged many to go. Generally, the biggest problem the program seems to face is that students generally don’t want to spend an entire day engaged in the training. If educational videos were available to students online, perhaps still with an incentive from an outside club or class, students could complete the GreenDot training on their own time. By giving the freedom to stop and go as you choose, perhaps with answering questions along the way, students will be more likely to make time to complete the program.