Green Dot program aims to prevent sexual violence

The event teaches students how to intervene safely in potentially violent situations.

By Jimmy Hibsch

Published Sept. 14, 2010

In an effort to combat sexual violence on campus, MU’s Green Dot program held its first public event Monday at Lowry Mall. "We are tabling to raise more awareness about our Green Dot program," said Holly Hanover, Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center co-coordinator, at the event. "We started the program last semester, but we're still trying to get more people involved. We want people to get a better idea of who we are."

Green Dot is a new branch of RSVP, which aims to proactively prevent relationship violence. The program accomplished one of RSVP's missions, Co-Coordinator Kim Scates said.

"Green Dot is our violence prevention strategy," Scates said. "A goal of the RSVP Center is to significantly reduce the number of individuals affected by power-based personal violence. We do that by teaching students to make their part of the world a little safer by intervening in potentially violent situations, so everyone goes home safe that evening."

A Green Dot can be anything from breaking up an argument to keeping an eye on a friend, Hanover said.

"If you see two people having a heated argument, maybe check in to make sure it doesn't get to a level of violence," Hanover said. "Green Dot is really about checking in with people, making sure they're OK."

The MU program began last April, after Dorothy Edwards, founder of the national Green Dot Strategy, came to campus for an educational consultation.

RSVP Center Coordinator Danica Pape said Edwards laid out guidelines for initiating the program at MU.

"We started by gradually introducing bystander intervention in general before using the Green Dot Strategy," Pape said. "Today's event was our first large-scale, public Green Dot event, but we have been participating in fairs and having trainings in classrooms, residence halls and Greek chapters since last year."

Green Dot spoke with 1,200 new Greek Life women Sunday, as a part of the Greek 2 Greek program, and will speak to 600 new Greek Life men Tuesday.

Freshman Chi Omega member Theresa Beno said Green Dot's lessons comforted her.

"I learned about how we, especially women in the Greek community, need to look out for each other and stop acts of violence before it's too late," Beno said. "It's reassuring to know that other people are concerned with your safety when you go out at night."

Pape estimated thousands of students, faculty and staff are involved in the program by actively performing Green Dots after learning about the program.

She said there are about 30 to 45 people who are in charge Green Dot's internal operations.

Last spring, MU hosted its first Green Dot Conference, where participants were given opportunities to practice Green Dot's philosophy. The event will be held again this year at 10 a.m. Oct. 2 in Stotler Lounge.

Pape said she encourages anyone to attend.

"I think Green Dot is so important because it is something everyone can do to keep violence from happening in our community," she said. "No one has to do everything, but everyone can do something. We would love to have a ton of people attend. The more people who know about Green Dot, the better."