Published on November 22, 2008
Campus Grants To Reduce Violence Against Women
About 3 percent of college women experience a completed and/or attempted rape during a typical college year; an additional 1.7 percent felt coerced into having sex,and 13 percent of college women reported being stalked. In the vast majority of instances (90%) the perpetrator is someone the victims knows - usually a classmate, friend, ex-boyfriend or acquaintance. (ref ) This means that simply providing security on campus is not enough.
The VAWA grant to reduce crimes against women on campus was authorized in VAWA 2005 for $12 million in 2006-2007, then up to $15 million for 2008-11. This funding provides for campus prevention, services and training, supports collaboration between campuses and community law enforcement, prosecution and victim services agencies, and works to develop campus wide programs to change the attitudes and beliefs that give rise to violence against women. In previous years, these programs were funded at $8.9 million . This year, because of President Bush’s block grant proposal, we don’t know how much money these programs will receive.
Please use the webform below to add your comments about why funding for programs to Reduce Violence Against Women on Campus matters.
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WHY CAMPUS GRANTS MATTER
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If you experienced stalking, sexual or dating violence while you were a college student, or if you provide services to college students who have experienced violence, please use our webform below to post your personal comments about why full funding for the Grants to Reduce Violent Crime against Women on Campus are so important We'll compile your comments into a booklet that will be hand-delivered to legislative offices.
Some tips about writing personal comments.
1. If you are a survivor, make your comments as personal as possible. I know its hard to re-visit the event, and don't go any deeper than you feel safe doing, but if you can, describe what happened to you, how old you, the perpetrator's relationship to you, how you felt, and why having services available was or would have been a good thing. If you were able to access services, describe specifically how they were helpful. If you were not able to access services, explain the impact of that. Please do not identify anybody by name in your comments.
If you are a service provider or someone who works with victims/survivors tell about the work you do, how it makes a difference and why this funding matters. Its especially powerful to tell the story of how your services made a difference for one student or family. Or write a diary of a day in your life as a campus service provider- what specifically did you do? (hospital call in the middle of the night, court at 9am, support group at noon where X happened, etc. You may also wish to tell about funding cuts or cuts in programming that your agency has experienced. But please, don't just talk about the money. Talk about the tragedies you are witnessing and the lives you are touching. Make it real, so they cannot turn away and pretend not to know..
My Comments |
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