Staying Safe on Campus

There are a number of things you can do to help stay safe on campus and in a variety of social settings. Knowing some of those critical tips can not only help you but also help your friends and fellow students. Take a minute to look over the helpful tips provided by RAINN on how to increase your on-campus safety.

We know that alcohol plays a huge role in many reported sexual assaults. One part of helping to keep yourself and those around you safe is better knowing your environment and what other students may or may not be doing when drinking is involved. Check out this resource to know how to protect yourself and understand the role that alcohol plays in making crimes easier for perpetrators to commit.

Bystander Assistance is Crucial

Here are some suggestions provided by the Bystander-Focused Prevention of Sexual Violence (2014) document produced by the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. It explains that bystanders are critical to prevention efforts, and how you can act to assist someone in need.

Here are some ways that bystanders can better equip themselves to assist others:

Being Aware. By being increasingly aware of your surroundings, individuals and groups can more easily identify sexual violence incidents.
Take Responsibility. When bystanders take on a sense of responsibility, they are motivated to step in and assist those in need.
Understanding Norms. Many times, individuals wrongly think that others do not care and are not driven to address acts of sexual violence. Such perceptions of what others may or may not do are related to attitudes held by bystanders and the actions they take.
Taking Risk. Bystanders will consider whether or not they should involve themselves in risky situations. They can foresee threats to not helping a victim and perhaps his/her own safety.
Being Confident. Individuals are more apt to act if they feel confident and capable in their ability to help. By being familiar with how to assist others, individuals have greater sense of how to take action and will be more effective with their acts of help.
Having Resources. Bystanders need resources, too! Because of this, it’s important to know who can be called upon in such a situation and what safety nets are in place to help prevent acts of sexual assault.
Having Necessary Skills. People need skills and training to know what assistance is most helpful to victims of assault. They oftentimes mean well, but they do not provide what help is actually needed by survivors.

Taking these suggestions into account, you can attend trainings offered by your school to help you gain the critical skills necessary to be an effective, caring, and knowledgeable bystander who can intervene and provide assistance to those in time of need. Also, be sure to take a look at these suggestions provided by RAINN on how you can help prevent a sexual assault from occurring.

Essential Parent Skills

Parents help lay the foundation of good emotional health! The Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs provided the following information on how parents can best assist teens in developing safe and healthy relationships with others. WCSAP suggests that parents:

Establish a warm, loving, and humorous parent-teen relationships;
Communicate both positive and negative messages in a respectful and effective manner;
Understand the world in which their teens live, and how teen culture differs from adult culture, particularly with respect to the use of technology;
Learn about the risks teens face in intimate relationships and convey that information to their children in an appropriate manner;
Establish reasonable, flexible, age-appropriate limits and boundaries designed to keep teens as safe as possible while not impeding their growing independence;
Resolve conflicts with partners in caregiving so as to give kids consistent messages;
Participate in self-care to strengthen their own resilience; and
Identify or develop support systems and resources to enhance their confidence in parenting.