Office on Violence Against Women Grant

Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) Campus Program

In 2019, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh was awarded the Grants to Reduce Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking on Campus Program from the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). This program is designed to enhance victim services, implement prevention and education programs, and develop and strengthen campus security and investigation strategies in order to prevent, prosecute, and respond to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking on college campuses. 

 

Areas of Focus

Coordinated Community Response Team (CCRT)
A coordinated community response approach ensures a timely, culturally relevant and respectful response to sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking committed on or off campus. Implementing such an approach requires establishing a (CCRT).  This team coordinates all prevention and intervention efforts; facilitates communication between key campus departments and community partners; ensures messages across efforts are consistent and reinforced; and ensures the system’s response to victims is seamless, consistent, and supportive.

In addition to our larger teams, we will be having subcommittees. These subcommittees will be as follows:

  1. Trauma Informed Care Subcommittee
  2. Accessibility Subcommittee
  3. Safe Bars Subcommittee
  4. Prevention Subcommittee
  5. Engaging Men Subcommittee
  6. Cultural Competency Subcommittee

These groups will meet at least three times a semester to discuss information related to their specialties and provide feedback and recommendations to the larger group. This will include reviewing curriculums and trainings, identifying needs and gaps, and evaluating events/policies/procedures for improvement.

Bystander Intervention
The campus bystander intervention training will be evidence-based/research-informed and include sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, and stalking prevention. This bystander training will be able to be tailored to specific student groups on campus.

An additional bystander intervention training, Safe Bars, will be designed and implemented at local alcohol serving establishments. We will implement this for two (2) establishments near the Fond du Lac campus, two (2) near the Fox Cities campus, and six (6) near the Oshkosh campus.

Trauma-Informed Care Training
A curriculum for Trauma Informed Care training will be developed and implemented on our campus for staff and faculty.

 

Who’s Involved

Shannon Meeks (OVW Grant Project Coordinator)
Alicia Johnson (Women’s Center Director/Co-Project Director)
Art Munin (Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs/Dean of  Students/Co-Project Director)
Gabrielle Schwartz (Sexual and Interpersonal Violence Prevention Coordinator)
Buzz Bares (Dean of Students)
Kurt Leibold (UWO Chief of Police)
Detective Michael Bartlein (UWO Police)
Robert Babcock (Residence Life Director)
Tammy Brunette (Access Campus Representative)
Emily O’Connor (Counseling Center)
Angie Zemke (Fraternity and Sorority Life)
Carlos Salazar (Men of Color Initiative/Latino/a/Hispanic Student Services)
Liz Cannon (Director of the LGBTQ+ Resource Center)
Holly Ludwig Callaghan (Accessibility Coordinator)
Kate Mann (Oshkosh PD)
Kelly Gennrick (Menasha PD)
Nick Hahn (Fond du Lac PD)
Charles Lindsay (Professional Counseling)
Darryl Sims (Athletics)
Brenda Doolittle (Aurora SANE)
Shawna Kuether (Title IX/EOEAA)
Nicole Krause (ASTOP)
Nicole Johnson (Solutions/Agnesian Healthcare)
Kristen Trimberger (Reach Counseling)
Beth Oswald (CADASI)
Yvonne Stapleton-Polack (SACC)
Emily Peterson (Harbor House)
Reiko Ramos (Room to Be Safe)

 

Mission

As a group of community stakeholders, we collaborate to prevent all forms of sexual and interpersonal violence, center the experiences of societally marginalized victims/survivors, and communicate that violence is unacceptable.

 

Values

We Value Trauma-Informed Care
We create an environment that is physically and emotionally safe, calm, and secure. We recognize the importance of trauma-informed care and acknowledge the power this strategy has in the lives of the people with whom we work. We strive to establish healing, hopeful, honest, equitable and trusting relationships with all involved.

We Value Inclusion
We treat ourselves, those we serve, and each other in a way that recognizes the inherent dignity of all people, and we commit to creating spaces where all voices are given space. We strive to center our work on the experiences of historically marginalized and disproportionately impacted victims and survivors (e.g. LGBTQ+ community, racial minorities, individuals with disabilities, etc.) and are committed to inclusion in every area of our work.

We Value Accountability
We agree to create a space where personal and collective accountability is valued. We value the ability to honor our commitments – to ourselves, to each other, and to victims/survivors. We take ownership of our work and strive to collaborate  in order to create a culture of change when it comes to sexual and interpersonal violence in our communities.

We Value Boldness
We strive to be bold in our actions. Boldness gives us the strength to do what is right, even in the face of adversity. As a team, we practice boldness in our strategies. We strive to expand our comfort zones in order to make changes to prevent violence.

 

This project was supported by Grant No. 2019-WA-AX-0038 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.