FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
CONTACT:
Erin
Burrows,Campus Accountability
Project
Coordinator, SAFER(347) 465-7233,
Susan Celia
Swan
Managing
Director, Communications,
V-Day
(917) 865-6603,
g
V-DAY AND
SAFER’S CAMPUS ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT
EMPOWERS COLLEGE STUDENTS
ACROSS THE NATION
TO HOLD SCHOOLS ACCOUNTABLE
FOR
ADDRESSING SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Project Celebrates One Year
Anniversary on December 1st;
Launches Winter Break
Challenge
New York,
NY, December 1, 2010—College
students are taking action to hold their schools accountable for making
their campus communities safer. Students Active for Ending
Rape (SAFER) and V-Day are proud to announce the success of the first year
of student submissions to our online database of sexual assault policies
from schools across the country. In an effort to publish 400 policies by
May 2011, SAFER and V-Day are launching the Winter
Break Challenge to further build the
Campus Accountability
Project (CAP) Policies Database as a tool for student-led
movements to reform sexual assault policies. Currently, the CAP database
houses 130 policies in an online, public and searchable database which
details what colleges and universities are doing to prevent, reduce and
respond to sexual violence on campus.
CAP
publicly recognizes the successes of some schools’ sexual assault policies
while also identifying gaps in others. Preliminary results show
that an overwhelming majority (75%) of schools in the database provide
24-hour crisis services to survivors as well as security measures like
campus blue lights and escort services. Policies are also largely
inclusive of a diverse community—92% use gender neutral language and
ensure access to resources for all students, regardless of sexual orientation, race
or ethnicity. However, while 72% of the schools offer primary prevention
programs to address the root causes of sexual violence, only 9% mandate
student participation in such programs. Also, a mere 7% of schools in the
database include a drug and alcohol amnesty clause for survivors of sexual
assault and only 62% allow for anonymous reporting. Because fears of
retaliation and feelings of shame and guilt are often barriers to
reporting an assault, it is crucial that more schools adopt amnesty
clauses and provide confidential and
anonymous reporting options for survivors.
Beginning December
1, 2010, V-Day and SAFER are
encouraging students to participate in the Campus Accountability Project
during their winter break.The
Winter Break Challenge asks students to register
at www.safercampus.org and submit their school
using CAP’s easy, step-by-step policy review form. We’re
also asking students to encourage their friends and fellow activists at
other schools to submit to CAP. The database is utilized
by
student activists looking to
make positive change on their campus, and also provides us with a wealth
of information on the best and worst practices in sexual
assault prevention and response
at schools across the country. Only students can submit to CAP, but anyone
can access the database by registering for free. You
can help kick-start real
change on campuses nationwide by sharing this
information and posting the Facebook event and Why
Policy video on your wall and blog
today!
About SAFER
SAFER is a
volunteer-run organization that has been training and supporting student
activists for a decade. We offer comprehensive programming to support
student-led movements for campus sexual assault policy reform. In addition
to the CAP policies database, our website houses the Activist Resource
Center, an online library of tools for organizers. We also run a national,
in-person trainings program to help students kick-start policy reform
campaigns and offer ongoing mentoring via the Activist Mentoring Program,
(AMP!).
About
V-Day
V-Day is a global
activist movement to end violence against women and girls that raises
funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve
Ensler’s award winning play The Vagina Monologues
and other artistic works. In 2010, over 5400 V-Day
benefit events took place produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and
around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of
violence against women and girls. To date, the V-Day movement
has raised over $75 million and educated over 300 million people about the
issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it, crafted
international educational, media and PSA campaigns, reopened shelters, and
funded over 12,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses
in Democratic Republic Of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and
Iraq. In 2001, V-Day was named one of Worth Magazine's "100 Best
Charities" and in 2006 one of Marie Claire Magazine's Top Ten
Charities.
