{"id":504,"date":"2015-04-16T17:12:05","date_gmt":"2015-04-16T22:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/currents.winonastateu.com\/?p=504"},"modified":"2015-04-16T17:12:05","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T22:12:05","slug":"gender-based-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/2015\/04\/16\/gender-based-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender-Based Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gender-Based<\/a>

WSU now offers a peer-staffed 24\/7 confidential helpline (507-457-5610) to assist any WSU or Southeast Tech student, faculty member, or staff with any aspect of GBV.<\/p><\/div>\n

More than a decade has passed since Tamara Berg, Professor and Director of the Women\u2019s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, began her work on gender-based violence issues.
\nBerg has served on many boards, including the Women\u2019s Resource Center of Winona (WRC), and she has taught many courses on gender violence and child advocacy. And that is only the beginning of one individual\u2019s drive and determination to<\/p>\n

rally a community to address the very real effects of gender-based violence in this quietly beautiful Upper Mississippi town and University campus.<\/p>\n

The community took notice of Berg in a big way: WSU Student Senate
\nFaculty of the Year Award, 2005; Sister Pat Kowalski Leadership Award from Minnesota Campus Compact, which recognizes individuals who demonstrate
\na commitment to high-quality service-learning and campus-community collaboration, 2009; Safer Community Award given by the Women\u2019s Resource Center of Winona, 2013. But awards and recognition aren\u2019t what motivate Berg.<\/p>\n

Gender-based violence (GBV). The term sounds a bit vague, but it encompasses a range of hostile and violent behaviors that are all too real. GBV brutalizes individuals and the community as a whole.<\/p>\n

A year ago, the White House released Not Alone, a report of the Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, which noted that, \u201cOne in five women is sexually assaulted in college. Most often, it\u2019s by someone she knows\u2014and also most often, she does not report what happened. Many survivors are left feeling isolated, ashamed, or to blame. Although it happens less often, men, too, are victims of these crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

WSU has made a commitment to take these statistics seriously. Berg, and the numerous partners and organizations she enlisted to help, decided to tackle the problem directly. \u201cThe challenge at WSU is one that plagues colleges and universities nationwide,\u201d Berg explained. \u201cGBV is prevalent, pervasive, and under-reported.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the spring of 2013, members of WSU\u2019s All University Sexual Violence Advisory Committee, which Berg co- chairs with Connie Kamara, Director of Student Health Services, applied for one of the very competitive campus grants offered by the Department of Justice. It was an all-out community effort.<\/p>\n

Berg brought together Diana Miller, Director of the Winona Women\u2019s Resource Center; Kalene Engel, a community lawyer; Stephanie Nuttall, Assistant Winona County Attorney; Karin Sonneman, Winona County Attorney; the Winona Police Department; and WSU departments, including Student Life, Legal Affairs, Health and Wellness, Security, Housing, and Grants & Sponsored Projects, to collaborate on the project and confront the issue of GBV head-on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very excited to hear in September 2013 that we were one of only 28 of the universities in the country to be awarded the Department of Justice grant,\u201d said Berg. (127 universities applied.) An Integrated Approach to Addressing Gender-Based Violence at WSU is a prestigious three-year $293,859 grant, renewable for up to six additional years. The grant will expand and reorganize WSU initiatives<\/p>\n

to reduce sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking on campus. And the grant will succeed in bringing WSU into compliance with the Federal Clery Act\u2019s mandates for college campuses.<\/p>\n

With the support of this grant, WSU has begun to institutionalize a comprehensive set of programs
\nthat will serve to educate all members of the campus community regarding GBV. An emphasis on prevention, bystander intervention education, and engaging men is central to the initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grant specifically funds the infrastructure to deliver a comprehensive peer advocacy and education program,\u201d Berg said. \u201cWe have worked primarily on these initiatives, as well as on forming a Coordinated Community Response Team.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, systems are being put in place to improve and establish systematic tracking of student attitudes toward violence through surveys and responses to university-sponsored classes and programs designed to decrease violence.<\/p>\n

GVB Statistics<\/h2>\n