Green Dot Bystander Intervention

Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendment is a tool meant to combat campus violence. The law requires colleges and universities to fight gender-based violence, harassment, and respond to the needs of survivors promoting equal educational access. The Green Dot Bystander Intervention Program was founded in 2006 by Dr. Dorothy Edwards. The program trains people about sexual assault and domestic violence on college campuses, primary and secondary schools, and communities. It develops and offers training for sexual assault and domestic violence. The method teaches students to intervene by using the 3 D's: Direct, Delegating the responsibility to others, and creating a Distraction to defuse a potentially dangerous situation. As described by Green Dot an example of this is in a situation at a party, intervening could mean that instead of calling out an inebriated student, an individual can create a distraction by "accidentally" spilling their drink on a potential aggressor. Prior to creating the program, Edwards worked as the University of Kentucky's Violence Intervention and Prevention Director where she discovered that individuals were not sure how to respond when witnessing a potential sexual assault. In her first year of running the program she trained 10 individuals, but by the time she left the University of Kentucky she was training 3,500 students and volunteers. The initiative led by Dr. Edwards was supported by a new focus on bystanders in The White House. Green Dot, Bringing in the Bystander, and Coaching Boys Into Men are preventative bystander programs that have begun to make cultural changes. Sexual assault in education Sexual violence in schools and on campuses is a pressing civil rights issue. According to the National Women's Law Center students who suffer from sexual assault and harassment are deprived the liberty of equal education. A majority of sexual assaults involving college students also involve drugs and alcohol. A female or male who is incapacitated due to drugs and alcohol is legally incapable of giving consent and someone who has sex with an incapacitated person can be prosecuted for rape. == Purpose ==

The goal of Green Dot is to implement a bystander intervention strategy that prevents and reduces power-based personal violence. The goal is to promote safety on college campuses. == Training ==

Green Dot develops programs, strategies, curriculum, and training courses designed to address power-based personal violence across environments. The program provides training courses for leadership and professionals that focus on the core areas necessary for successful implementation of the program. The Green Dot bystander program uses four training modules to educate bystanders on their impact. • The first module provides bystanders with an overview of the strategy, where key definitions and strategies are discussed. The CRVAW study also found a 40% reduction in self-reported frequency of total violence perpetration including sexual violence, sexual harassment, stalking, and dating violence. Ann Coker, and the CRVAW team identify violence prevention as a public health priority. A 2011 study of 2,504 college undergraduate students between 18 and 24 looked at the impact of bystander intervention on college campuses. The study found that 46% of the students surveyed had heard a Green Dot speech on their college campus. Out of the sample size surveyed, only 14% had received active bystander training in the past two years. Students trained in Green Dot bystander intervention reported engaging in significantly more bystander behaviors and observing more self-reported active bystander behaviors compared to non-trained students. Those receiving bystander intervention training appeared to report more active bystander behaviors than those simply hearing a Green Dot speech, and both intervention groups reported more observed and active bystander behaviors than non-exposed students. == References ==