What you can do...

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  • Ask for help from our Peer Educators if you are unsure about the situation you are dealing with or you have dealth with in the past by completing this form.
  • Familiarize yourself with the warning signs of unhealthy or abusive relationships.  If you hear a friend talking about controlling their partner, for example, express your concern.
  • Understand how your own attitudes and actions might enable heterosexism, sexism and violence, and work toward changing them. 
  • Confront heteronormative, sexist, racist, and all other remarks and jokes that support or enable the marginalization of any category of people.  Commit yourself to ending oppression in all its forms.
  • Be a mindful consumer of media. Promote discussion among peers about how consumption of media can influence ideas about gender roles, dynamics of interpersonal relationships, consent, sexual behavior, and characteristics of people of various social identities.
  • Read articles, essays, books about qualities of health relationships and the root causes of sexual violence. Educate yourself and others about the connections between larger social forces and the conflicts within relationships. 
  • Be an informed and engaged citizen.  Research and make informed choices in your support of policies, legislation, and political candidates. Local, state, and national policies and legislation can create conditions that enable, make possible, or reduce relationship violence and sexual assault.
  • Support individuals and agencies who are on the forefront in working to end all forms of interpersonal violence. 
  • Support survivors of sexual assault by never putting the blame on the person(s) who were assaulted. Never voice, believe, or support the idea that a victim “wanted it.” No one owes their date or partner sex, under any circumstances.
  • Interrupt any friend or acquaintance who you see violating, verbally or physically, someone’s space.
  • Offer to watch your friends’ drinks when they leave the table.
  • Offer to be your friend’s safe call when they meet up with someone they met online.  Talk with your friend about safety guidelines for online dating.
  • Decide with your friends in advance each person’s plan for staying safe, getting home, and whether or not you will leave with anyone other than the person/people with whom you arrived.  Account for all people in the group throughout the evening and when you leave.
  • Share statistics with your friends about interpersonal violence.