Students gathered in the Gallagher room to celebrate “It’s On Us” day which recognizes the movement to counter sexual assault on college campuses and listen to a speaker from A Women’s Place to learn more about Title IX.
On April 10, Jasmine Craig, director of education and training at A Woman’s Place, the only domestic violence community benefit organization in Bucks County, led a presentation to inform students about Title IX. Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program that receives federal funding, part of the Education Amendments of 1972.
The discussion was provoked by “It’s On Us” day which is the nation’s largest nonprofit program dedicated to the prevention of assault happening on college campuses. Before Craig began Dr.Dekia Smith, dean of students at Bucks, had the audience members look up the “It’s On Us” pledge which took them to a website where they can sign the pledge to join the movement to help prevent sexual assault. According to ncadv.org date rape among college students accounts for 35 percent of attempted rapes, 22.9 percent of threatened rapes and 12.8 percent of completed rapes.
Craig’s presentation focused on Intimate Partner Violence which is umbrellaed underneath domestic abuse. Before sharing some statistics she asked the participants some knowledge check questions to help “guide” their thinking process.
“One in four women and one in nine men experience severe intimate partner physical violence, IP contact sexual violence, and/or IP stalking with impacts such as injury, fearfulness, post-traumatic stress disorder, use of victim services, contraction of sexually transmitted diseases and more,” Craig read from the screen which showed other disheartening statistics about IPV.
She told students about the six different types of abuse —- physical, sexual, verbal/emotional, psychological, financial and cultural/identity. “You’re still a survivor of IPV without experiencing physical or sexual abuse,” Craig said.
She also explained the difference between domestic violence, relational violence and criminal behavior. Abuse and IPV are not often criminal acts so they can’t have legal punishments, which leads to people feeling trapped in damaging relationships until it leads to physical violence or criminal behavior.
Craig shared a video that showed a relationship between a male and female that started out positive but kept leading to abusive and harmful situations to try and show an inside look at IPV. “Individual behavior might not seem that bad, so it’s important to tell people to document every situation so over time you can see how behavior becomes a cycle.”
Touching on the topic of how to help loved ones who are in an abusive relationship Craig said the tip you should not give is to break up, “because that can be one of the most dangerous times for a survivor. An overwhelming amount of homicide victims died during or after a breakup.” She talked about the power of “I” statements such as “I felt concerned when …, Because …, I need.”
Craig also talked about AWP and its impact and importance to Bucks County. For the 2023 year, the organization received 4,422 hotline calls and served 77 men, 2,118 women, 30 teens, 7 transgender individuals, 219 young adults and 179 seniors. “We have one lawyer and that lawyer supported 2836 cases just last year,” she said.
She explained how they have an advocate at the Bucks County Courthouse every Tuesday and Thursday. “That’s how prevalent IPV is in Bucks County,” she said. “We are not just a crisis center, we support anyone and everyone who is surviving any form of domestic violence or intimate partner violence.”
The event was held possible thanks to a grant secured by Smith.
If you or someone you know needs help call AWP’s 24/7 hotline at 1-800-220-8116. For more information about resources or volunteering visit their website at https://awomansplace.org/.