Last fall, Erin Dury got a chance to work on a cause she has always supported.
“Back at home, my mom’s always been on the board of the YWCA, so I’ve always been involved in women’s rights,” the sophomore said.
Her chance was to work for the Sexual Wellness Advocacy Team, a yearlong internship course offered through the University’s educational leadership department. SWAT’s mission is to educate the campus community on issues surrounding dating violence and sexual assault, and to present the information to the broadest audience possible.
Dury applied for the internship last year at IntroDUCKtion, not knowing quite what to expect, but hoping to learn more about a cause she cared about.
“It was crazy,” she said. “We created a presentation — PowerPoint. The first term we did a lot of training.”
The training teaches interns how to support a survivor of rape or domestic/partner violence.
Multiple groups provide training for the interns, featuring volunteers from Womenspace, a domestic violence education group and women’s shelter. Sexual Assault Awareness Services also provided training sessions for every intern in the program.
Between six and nine interns spent almost the entire academic year preparing the presentation that they would later show to their advisory board as well as a fraternity.
The work Dury and the other interns accomplished will be useful to this year’s interns. She said the group plans to do more this year and use presentation material from last year.
One of the greatest challenges, Dury said, was trying to figure out what kind of media elements to incorporate in their presentation to best express their material, and what information to use.
SWAT wants to educate more of the campus community.
“Our main goal is to be very inclusive, not to alienate the audiences we’re speaking to,” said Lori Brown, office coordinator for the Women’s Center.
“Our mission is to educate our peers at the UO about sexual assault and how to have healthy relationships,” Brown said. The group is looking for everyone interested in creating a respectful and helpful presentation to honor survivors and to educate the community about certain basic human rights.
“We would really like to have some male interns,” Brown said.
The program also explores society’s problem with erroneously blaming survivors, particularly their actions or behavior in a situation.
“There’s no rapeable offense that someone can commit,” SASS Community Education Coordinator Michelle Edwards said.
Applications for the course are available at the Women’s Center and the Office of Student Life. For more details, call the Women’s Center at 346-4095 or SASS at 484-9791, Ext. 317. The business line for SASS is 484-9791 and the crisis line is 343-7277.