The Avon Foundation for Women awarded the VOICE Initiative in Health Promotion at Georgia Tech with a one-year grant to participate in the first National Leadership Institute: Changing the Narrative on Campus Gender-Based Violence. Through the $10,000 grant from the Avon Foundation, Georgia Tech will be among 20 schools to participate in this comprehensive, action-oriented leadership program to develop and implement action plans to prevent and respond to sexual assault.  Together, they will form a growing learning community committed to ending gender-based violence on school campuses.

“We see the National Leadership Institute as an innovative opportunity for students and schools to take the lead in shifting the conversation around gender-based violence in the campus setting, but also in the broader dialogue around sexual and domestic violence in our society,” said Christine Jaworsky, Avon Foundation Program Director.

During the program, participants will learn and share best practices on how to prevent sexual violence and how to respond, using a trauma-informed lens, when an assault occurs. At the end of the two-day institute, each school will have a sexual assault prevention and response action plan, which they will be supported to implement over the course of a year.  “There were over 70 schools who applied to be part of the program, so we know there is an immediate need and desire to find and implement solutions,” said Lonna Davis, program leader for Futures Without Violence, the organization leading training for the National Leadership Institute.        

“We are proud that the Avon Foundation for Women has chosen to support our program again. With these funds, and through participation in the Leadership Institute, we will be able to evaluate and enhance the comprehensive efforts of VOICE, Georgia Tech’s long-standing sexual and relationship violence prevention and survivor support initiative. We are grateful for the amazing support from students, faculty, and staff across campus that helps drive our work to create a community of respect, communication, and equity. We believe that this opportunity will provide us with tools to help advance our work sustainably into the future,” said Lee Helmken, Health Educator in Health Promotion at Georgia Tech, and co-coordinator of VOICE.

The National Leadership Institute curriculum focuses on four major areas: 1) fundamentals of gender-based violence and trauma, 2) campus cultures and climate, 3) prevention and education, and 4) response, policy, and adjudication. Developed in consultation with national experts and institutional representatives from schools across the country, the curriculum provides colleges and universities the opportunity to learn best practices in the prevention, response and resolution of sexual violence, and the tools needed to implement action plans.  

Below are the participants in Atlanta on November 30-December 1, 2016.

1. Benedict College
2. Clemson University
3. College of Charleston
4. East Tennessee State University
5. Georgia Institute of Technology
6. Georgia State University
7. Middle Tennessee State University
8. Morehouse College
9. Tuskegee University
10. University of North Carolina at Charlotte