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It’s On Us Workshop:

Bystander Education 101

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Sign In!

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Workshop Agenda

Presenter Introduction
Overview of It’s On Us
Overview of Educational Material �and Focus Areas
Facilitator's Guide
Bystander Education 101 �Workshop Training
Questions

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INTRODUCTIONS

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From left to right, Elvin Bruno Jr., Tracey Vitchers, Silvia Zenteno

Silvia Zenteno is the Senior Director of Education and Research at It’s On Us. Previously, she was a Biden Foundation policy fellow, working under the Violence Against Women pillar, and a management analyst at the U.S. Justice Department’s Office on Violence against Women, where she worked on the Campus and Consolidated Youth teams.

Pronouns: She/her/hers

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OVERVIEW �OF IT’S ON US

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Started in 2014 by President Obama and Vice President Biden �to bring as many students and campus community members into the conversation and raise awareness around sexual assault.

To date, over 440,000 persons have taken the “It’s On Us” pledge to combat college sexual assault, and today our hundreds of chapters have held over 6,000 educational and organizing events in 31 states and Washington, D.C.

Campaign → Program

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OVERVIEW �OF 2023 EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING

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To create in-house programming and resources for students that gives them the training and tools they need to end sexual violence �on college and university campuses.

Our 2023 vision:

This became our goal for the 2019-20 academic year. For those of you who watch the amazing show, insecure, you will recognize the “we got yall” logo on the right. We function more like the diagram on the top of the screen - in a very decentralized way. Our goal is to train student leaders that will lead (and are well prepared to lead) this movement.

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Our goals are to combat the following programming issues:

Too expensive

Language not student-friendly

Not adaptable to different campuses

Students know what they need, so that is who we consulted to develop these materials, and Our goal is to train student leaders that will lead (and are well prepared to lead) this movement.

According to the University of Denver, out of 300 campaigns between 1900-2013, any that were able to reach about 3.5% popular support succeeded. There are about 20 million people enrolled in higher education in the U.S., so 3.5% for us would be about 700,000 students. Our goal is to eventually train those 700,000 students.

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Process:

Conducted an analysis of national programs and existing best practices
Held interviews and focus groups with students, staff, and administrators across the country
We developed peer-to-peer resources that address the existing needs identified
Conducted a pilot program to test each of the resources

Most national prevention programs include the following components:

Community engagement

Bystander Intervention

School’s response

It’s On Us Focus Areas

Survivor �Support

Bystander Intervention

Sexual Assault Awareness

Okay, our process: We spent the first quarter of last year listening to students - holding focus groups and interviews - and then developed the material, piloted them, and then refined them based on that feedback.

Each educational tool was developed based on direct feedback and needs addressed by students and draw from the most up-to-date research and best-practices, which are cited within each document. On the bottom of the screen you can see our three pillars in Blue. Best practices tell us that you can achieve the most culture change on a campus if you have programming that covers community engagement (so which outside groups is your campus working with on this issue), ways anyone can intervene or bystander education, and programming specifically on what your options are at your school. Our three pillars aim to address all three of those areas.

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Need adequate training for investigators and hearing board
Need a decentralized decision-making authority

Gaps in Existing Education and Training Programs for Campuses

Lack of resources
Lack of funding
Intersectional issues present challenges in addressing gender bias

Need to include the voices of LGBTQ students when building response
Need to encourage �social justice education

National Campus �Conduct Roundtable

An HBCU Story

National LGBT �Roundtable Report

This shows gaps identified in programming on a national level - Please note that NO national program will be perfect because the most effective way to get an audience to retain information and use it is by catering the material to them. We encourage you to incorporate examples that are most relevant when you can.

Campus Conduct Roundtable - http://changingourcampus.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/FINAL-Conduct-Roundtable-22317.pdf

Adequate training for investigators and hearing body; adequate staffing for Title IX coordinators
Decentralization of decision-making authority throughout the university

LGBT Roundtable Report:Lack of resources - DRAFT

Need to include the voices of LGBTQ students when building response
Need to encourage social justice

education

HBCU Story - http://changingourcampus.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/HBCU-Story-Final-2-21-17.pdf

Lack of funding
Intersectional issues present challenges in addressing gender bias

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Workshop Facilitator’s Guide

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Educational Videos

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Vlad - I Owe You Action

Video

Discussion Questions

I Owe You Action is a bystander intervention story told by Vlad, a former student. He tells a story of a night when he saw something risky happening and he decided to take action and intervene. Being an active bystander is something anyone can do - there are many ways to take action to prevent a potential sexual assault.

Play Vlad’s video at a workshop/training, a sporting event, and any place where you have an audience. If you are in a smaller group setting, use the following questions to discuss the video.

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Bystander Education 101:

Creating a Culture of Shared Accountability for Sexual Assault Prevention

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Contents

Introductions

Culture Change through Prevention

What is Bystander Education?

Theories

Ways to Intervene

Discussion Questions

Getting YOUR School to Implement Bystander Education

Questions

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INTRODUCTIONS

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CULTURE CHANGE THROUGH PREVENTION

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Sexual Assault & Campus Culture:

What’s Wrong?

1 in 5 female-identifying and 1 in 14 male-identifying students across the US will be sexually assaulted during their time in college - rates are higher for students of color, LGBTQIAA students, low-income students, and students with disabilities.
Of those, less than 10% of sexual assaults are formally reported.
About 40% of rape victims suffer from severe emotional distress (requiring mental health treatment)
34.1% of students who have experienced sexual assault drop out, higher than the overall dropout rate.
And MANY, MANY more...

So, before talking about ways to do something about the violence, we have to discuss what this violence is and how it is affecting us and our communities today. Remind the class that there are A LOT more stats we could have included. If anyone is interested in adding stats here or someone in your training asks about them, I always recommend RAINN.org or the National Intimate Partner Violence Survey Reports - they come out every couple of years and a new one was released in 2018 with great data.

I can just read a few of these - 1 in 5 female identifying and 1 in 14 male identifying students in the country will be sexually assaulted while in college. Both of these stats are most likely higher than this due to low reporting rates though - a smaller study by the justice department in 2015 actually shows sexual violence among women at 24%.

Again, reporting rates are very low, at 10%. Almost half of victims require mental health services, and more than a third of survivors drop out of college after an assault.

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Prevalence vs. Reporting Rates

According to RAINN, less than 20% of female victims who report their assault report to the police.	Women between the ages of 18-24 are at risk of sexual assault at a rate three times higher than other women.	According to NSVRC, over 90% of sexual violence on college campuses in the U.S. go unreported.

With prevalence rates this high, and reporting rates this low, prevention is extremely important.

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WHAT IS BYSTANDER EDUCATION?

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Bystander Education is...

A primary prevention method to encourage responsive bystander behavior to spread the responsibility for safety to the community as a whole.
A Bystander is anyone who is present when a situation occurs but is not involved directly in it.
Bystander Intervention is when a bystander takes action to intervene in an act of violence or the acts leading up to the violence.

Bystander education is a combo of these things. We call this bystander education versus intervention because we want to teach people how to intervene, BUT we ALSOO want to talk about why it is important to intervene and what it can lead to. Sort of the bigger picture. So it is -

A primary prevention method to encourage responsive bystander behavior to spread the responsibility for safety to the community as a whole.
AND A Bystander is anyone who is present when a situation occurs but is NOT involved directly in it. The next slide will show an example of this!
Bystander Intervention is when the bystander takes action to intervene in an act of violence or what they identify as a risky situation that MIGHT lead to violence. It is better to intervene to be safe than to walk away and have the violence occur.

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Kitty Genovese

In 1964, Kitty, a 28-year-old, was stabbed outside the apartment building where she lived in Queens, NYC.
New York Times reported that 38 people at or around the building saw what happened and did not do anything.
She was stabbed twice, the man ran off
When the man realized no one was coming, he went back, stabbed her many more times and raped her.

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THEORIES

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Diffusion of Responsibility Theory

People are less likely to take action to intervene if others are present.

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Diffusion of Innovation Theory

If all of us had the tools and knowledge to intervene, would we?

People are more likely to do something if they see others doing it as well. Someone has to be the campus leader and intervene.

As there begin to be more leaders who do this, more people will feel comfortable doing it.

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Snowball Activity

Supplies: Strips of paper, pens or markers, scenario examples

Scenario:

You see a couple fighting in a parking lot, the situation seems to be escalating quickly and you think it may become physical.

Question:

What would be the reason that you wouldn’t intervene?

Each person writes their reason on a slip of paper and crumbles it into a ball. When the presenter gives the cue, throw your crumpled paper ball at someone else in the room and we’ll have people pick up the balls of paper and read the reasons out loud.

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Discussion...

Can anyone give an example, whether real or not, of someone or a position on their campus that may be an innovator?
Are there situations where you see the diffusion of responsibility (bystander effect) on your campus? When does this happen?
Name one example (only share what you are comfortable with) of you or someone acting as a bystander or an active bystander in a situation.

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How to DIRECTLY and INDIRECTLY intervene

We can all play a role in changing the culture on our campuses!

By stepping in - both directly as well as indirectly - we can make our campuses safer places to be and increase trust in the student body.

Causing a distraction

What is this?

If you witness a risky situation occurring, causing the aggressor to focus on something else, can help the person at risk exit the situation.

Example: Jamie is talking to Casey and it looks like Casey feels stuck in a corner and is unable to regain their personal space. Sam (active bystander) walks over and tells Jamie you think their car is being towed.

Calling for help/authorities

What is this?

If a situation looks like it is escalating and may be risky, but you do not feel 100% sure it is safe to intervene, call the police.

Example: Morgan is walking out of a party with Frankie, who looks disoriented and unwilling. Morgan is not listening to anyone asking them to leave Frankie alone and they seem to be getting angry and aggressive. This may be a good time to find Frankie’s friends or call the police.

Here are two example of ways to intervene. Causing a distraction is when you see something that could potentially be risky behavior happening between two people for example, so you go over to them and tell the one causing the risk something to get them to walk away or get distracted. Here the example is “I think your car might be getting towed” - Use whatever makes most sense to you in your situation. One way to gauge whether a situation is risky is by simply identifying if someone looks to be or feel uncomfortable in ANY way - if the answer is yes, it is worth trying to intervene.

These are only two examples, there are many many ways to intervene - always do what you feel most comfortable with. We have a one-pager with additional examples on our website. We recommend printing that out for the group if printing is accessible to you and in your orgs budget.

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Keep in mind...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines primary prevention of sexual violence as:

“Population-based and/or environmental and system-level strategies, policies, and actions that prevent sexual violence from initially occurring”

Therefore, the more specific our strategies are to our own communities or populations, the more effective they will be.

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Jessie is at a house party with some of their friends. They notice that the guys at the party are giving their friend Taylor a lot of drinks as they play pong. At some point, Jessie realizes that Taylor is gone and looks around to see a random guy holding Taylor’s arm and leading her upstairs away from the party.

What are some ways for Jessie to intervene in this situation?

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Kaiya is going on a girl’s trip with her friends. Her best friend, Jasmine tells her about the new relationship she just got into as they’re traveling. Jasmine tells Kaiya that her new girlfriend is kind and funny, but has trust issues from past relationships. While they’re at the hotel that night, Jasmine’s new girlfriend messages Kaiya asking her to keep a watchful eye on Laurel and to tell her what Jasmine does and who she talks too.

What are some ways for Kaiya to intervene in this situation?

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Michael was leaving the library one night when he sees a guy he knows from class catcalling a pair of girls and following them towards their car as they try to walk away from him. The classmates’s tone becomes angrier the longer the girls ignore him and reject him. Michael can tell that the girls are scared and he thinks the situation may continue to escalate.

What are some ways for Michael to intervene and stop this situation?

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Ben is asked to help his fraternity brothers plan their upcoming party. He quickly finds out that each new member is expected to bring a freshman girl and that they’ll be offering them drinks from a punch bucket that’s drugged so they’ll be easier to hook up with. Ben’s little sister just became a freshman and he’s afraid that his fraternity brothers will drug her or her friends.

What are some ways for Ben to intervene in this situation?

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Ellie is incredibly close to her sorority sisters. She usually meets her sister Maria on weekdays for lunch, but since Maria got into a new relationship she’s been difficult to make plans with. Ellie sees Maria in class and Maria mentions that her boyfriend thinks the sorority is stupid and that her friends don’t really care about her. Ellie notices that she checks her phone a lot and doesn’t seem to be her typical happy self.

What are some ways for Ellie to intervene in this situation?

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Michael is pledging a fraternity on his campus. As a new member he is told that he’ll need to hook up with a girl in a sorority and get a nude picture of her as proof. When Michael asks what he should do if a girl doesn’t want to give him a nude picture, his pledge master tells him that it doesn’t matter if she knows Michael is taking the picture as long as he gets it. The pledge master then says that some brothers get pictures of the girls when they’re unconscious.

What are some ways for Michael to intervene and stop this situation?

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Anya is the new sweetheart of her boyfriend’s fraternity. For their upcoming party Anya is told to bring her sorority sisters and other female friends. At the party, Anya sees the brothers giving her friends drinks from a separate punch bowl then everyone else and her friends seem to be very intoxicated and disoriented even though they haven’t had much to drink.

What are some ways for Anya to intervene in this situation?

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Consider the following...

If you are developing a training that has role-playing activities or “real life” scenarios, do those roles or scenarios apply to your audience?

When we talk about being an active bystander, we talk about how unlikely we are to step into a situation, but not why we don’t. What are some reasons people may not feel comfortable intervening in a risky situation?

What Is the role of privilege and entitlement on reporting rates?

Describe the relationship between this community and on or off campus authorities such as law enforcement. What are some reasons people may not want to call the police?

Bystander intervention strategies that work in one group, may not work at all in another.

What does accountability mean in different communities?

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ACTIVITY

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Get into Groups!

Pick one intervention method from the following list and write an example of something you would do to deescalate the situation:

You see a couple fighting in a parking lot, the situation seems to be escalating quickly and you think it may become physical.

Using a distraction
Getting other people involved with you to intervene
Using code words to communicate
Being direct
Shift the focus to yourself
Show support/stand with your peers

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DEBRIEF

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HOW TO BRING BYSTANDER EDUCATION TO

YOUR CAMPUS

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Remind Your College or University...

Ongoing training is required by the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act):

The “implementation by institutions and disclosure of programs to prevent dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking, including: ongoing prevention and awareness campaigns for students and employees.”

As of 2013, The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) includes a new training requirement that:

Institutional personnel must receive specialized training on “how to conduct an investigation and hearing process that protects the safety of victims and promotes accountability.”

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The Value of Ongoing Bystander Training...

84% of employees at the companies on the Best Performing Organizations list by IBM, receive ongoing training in their field of work.

71% of the organizational leaders around the country identified human capital as the key source of sustainability in their organizations.

Providing ongoing training can lead to a 22% faster rollout of new processes, rules, and information.

IBM Smarter Workforce (Kenexa) 2013 Survey

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Importance of Campus Climate Surveys!

You cannot solve a problem if you do not know what it is and the extent of it.

Police reports and crime logs do not provide an accurate perception of the problem or its scope.

A campus climate survey on sexual assault provides school-specific data on the extent of sexual assault as it exists on a campus as well as data on the attitudes and perceptions about sexual assault among different campus groups.

Go to itsonus.org to find a Sample Campus Climate Survey!

This tool is free to use and is based on the findings of a national study by the The Bureau of Justice Statistics, RTI International, and the Office on Violence Against Women. developed and tested this survey instrument. Your school can use this sample instrument to guide their climate survey questions and process.

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Importance of Campus Climate Surveys!

Campus Climate surveys generate data about sexual assault on each campus, allowing schools to create campus-specific prevention and response efforts.

An effective campus climate survey is:

Brief (less than 20 minutes) and available on a variety of electronic devices

Administered towards the end of the academic year and remain available to participants for at least one month, but preferably two

Inclusive of multiple follow-up reminders for non-respondents

Personalized for potential respondents and messages should be customized to engage men and increase participation

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Get into Groups!

At your table, practice pitching a campus climate survey to your school administrators.

Use the information on campus climate surveys listed at your table as examples.

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DEBRIEF

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WANT TO LEARN MORE?

GO TO ITSONUS.ORG

silvia@civicnation.org

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QUESTIONS?