Release: 2 Florida Women Work to Stop Campus Sexual Assault as Students Go Back to School #campusassault #collegelife | Affirmative Consent / Stopping Campus Sexual Assault.

August 26, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FLORIDA IS GROUND ZERO TO STOP CAMPUS SEXUAL ASSAULT
2 Florida Women Work to Stop Campus Sexual Assault as Students Head Back to School

Orlando, Fla Of the nearly one million high school girls transitioning to college this month, statistics indicate that 200,000 will be sexually assaulted before graduation. While much focus is on how colleges and universities handle complaints of sexual assault, Alison Berke and Sheri Heitker Dixon believe prevention programs that approach the issue from the front end will more effectively stop campus sexual violence.

Affirmative Consent Project: Tools to help students have safer, more responsible, sexual encounters (College Hookups).
Keep Her Safe: Tools to help parents press colleges and universities to effectively prevent sexual assault

Berke’s organization The Affirmative Consent Project is promoting Affirmative Consent (Yes means Yes) as a solution. Heitker Dixon is founder of Keep Her Safe which is encouraging parents to look for prevention programs that include affirmative consent when choosing a school with their daughters.

“If my daughter is filing a complaint with a Title IX coordinator, I view that as a big failure no matter how good the complaint process is.” said Heitker Dixon. “I want to know that schools are using effective programs to prevent assault. It is critical that administrations include affirmative consent and healthy relationship education in their prevention programs.”

Keep Her Safe mobilizes parents to stop campus sexual assault by making it a consumer issue. Parents are using the Keep Her Safe Parent Toolkit a free online downloadable program that guides them through the school selection process and coaches them on advocating for campuses that are safe from sexual assault. With the cost of 4-year degrees ranging from $25,000 to $250,000, it makes sense that parents consider safe from sexual assault a major selection criterion just as they consider aspects such as curriculum, location, size and campus amenities.

The Affirmative Consent Project is on the front end of the affirmative consent movement by providing the most up to date news and resources about new legislation, sexual respect, and bystander intervention on their website. Many schools are including affirmative consent in their prevention training, and several states have passed Yes Means Yes Legislation that requires sexual partners to get affirmative, verbal, and ongoing consent. To help young people include affirmative consent in their sexual relationships, The Affirmative Consent Project offers a consent kit that includes a guide to Affirmative Consent policies, a consent agreement, and also includes a condom and a breath mint to help reinforce affirmative consent as a part of sexual activity.

“The Affirmative Consent Project works to create awareness about new school policies and state laws that promote education about campus safety, as well as a more reliable and responsive reporting system if an incident has occurred.” stated Berke “Most importantly, affirmative consent education will help two consenting adults have a responsible conversation about consent, and what that means. Communication is the first step to a responsible encounter, which will lead to less confusion about consent.”

About Keep Her Safe

Keep Her Safe is mobilizing parents to stop campus sexual assault by making it a consumer issue. The Keep Her Safe Parent Toolkit guides parents in assessing and institution’s attitudes about sexual assault and its systems for keeping women safe on campus. It then guides them in advocating to school administrators that campuses be safe from sexual assault.

About The Affirmative Consent Project

The Affirmative Consent Project is a website and resource center dedicated to tracking the news and policy updates concerning the Affirmative Consent and Yes Means Yes standard. The website offers a daily update with current news and opinions covering new legislation, school policy and other information that keeps today’s students and parents informed and current. The Affirmative Consent Marketplace “Consent Gear” also offers products such as t-shirts, phone covers, and other items with positive messaging about relationship safety and campus safety.

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