Sexual and Relationship Violence Support Services is working to expand the Green Dot Strategy program to all regional campuses this fall. 

A Green Dot is considered a moment in which a person acts or responds in a way that prevents power-based personal violence. The program launched at the main Kent campus in the fall of 2014. 

“Green Dot was our big thing this year that we brought in, and we want to continue to build on that,” Director of SRVSS Jennie O’Connell said. “We are looking at helping the regional campuses and working with them to get Green Dot more present on those campuses in the upcoming year.” 

“Red dots” symbolize a case or an instance of some type of violence, crime, death or any terror that occurs in the projected area. 

The program aims to fill these infographic maps with green dots that represent prevention from any form of violence in the campus community.

Bringing the Green Dot program to regional campuses is the SRVSS office’s way of attempting to lower the number of, or even eliminating, those red dots to better all Kent campus communities. 

“We’re working to get staff on each campus trained as educators,” O’Connell said. “And because each campus is different, we’re working to see how the program will look and what fits best on each of the campuses. So, we want the message of Green Dot to fit that campus community.”

O’Connell said the Green Dot program offers bystander workshops that give in-depth information about the movement, which incorporates a review of power-based personal violence. This includes intimate partner violence, sexual violence, stalking, identity-based targeting and bullying. Individuals and organizations have the opportunity to register for these workshops. 

“Many of these acts of violence happen everywhere, so Green Dot is necessary because it helps to reduce these numbers,” Program Coordinator Alicia Robinson said. 

She said Green Dot raises great awareness and the power of communities, especially regional campuses working together to increase involvement and decrease red dots.

The program also serves as a social marketing campaign that encourages people to be proactive in spreading the message of the culture around violence, Robinson said, whether it is through social media or peer influence. 

Assistant Director of SRVSS Cassandra Pegg-Kirby said one of the many issues of expanding the Green Dot initiative is to get more students involved. The SRVSS office encourages students, staff and faculty to ask questions to make clear of what the program is about. 

“We want to make sure we’re providing resources and information and encouraging the campus population to ask those questions and to find out more and to foster that kind of curiosity,” Pegg-Kirby said.  

For more information on The Green Dot program, visit http://www.kent.edu/srvss/about-green-dot.

Contact Daisha Overstreet at [email protected].