2022-2023 MCVP Annual-Report by universityofutahdigital

2023 ANNUAL REPORT

A Message from Chris

I cannot believe we are wrapping up the third year at the McCluskey Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education! This year we tripled our staff, reached thousands of people with our educational programming, and embarked on several new interdisciplinary research projects.

I continue to be proud of the community we are building and the ways we take risks to do things differently. Tackling dating and sexual violence among college students by interrupting harm at its source is not easy.

While many people advocated for dec to interrupt harm, few have actually w people who engage in low-level harm potential to cause harm. In fact, when mind when they think of “violence prevention,” they typically focus on risk reduction strategies strategies focused on teaching people how to avoid harm rather than how not to cause harm. Our work this year centered on shifting campus culture to understand and address harm at its root, including helping students identify harmful behavior.

We did this several ways. First, our student staff devised a poster campaign called “You Might Be Causing Harm If…” and, as explained later in this year’s report, came up with eight examples of harmful behaviors that were listed on eye-catching posters with QR codes directing viewers to blog posts explaining the problematic behavior in greater detail.

Student staff also developed a new workshop called “What is Harm?” that includes an activity called the “Continuum of Harm” to help

students think about harmful behavior in many iterations. Initial feedback from participants in this workshop indicates that it is successful in getting them to think differently about harm and has even helped some students identify their own behaviors that may cause harm to another person. Student staff also developed a podcast, “The New Consent Narrative,” to educate people about primary prevention and related strategies.

Student staff were instrumental in the development of these programs and workshops and, yet, they couldn’t have done it without the incredible support of our core staff. Both Whitney Hills and Brooke Adams joined the MCVP this year and contributed alongside our outstanding graduate assistant, Allie Moore, and me in providing on-going support to our students. We have guided students in learning new ways of thinking, navigating university politics and bureaucracies, and expressing themselves through writing and workshop facilitation. Stacy Jenkins also joined us in March as our new Office Support Coordinator and is already making the essential functions of our work more manageable!

In looking ahead to next year, we are excited about adding new people to our team. Dr. Nadeeka Karunaratne will join us in August as a post-doctoral researcher. In collaboration with the University Counseling Center, we plan to hire an intervention coordinator who will be responsible for providing clinical support to people who have engaged in harmful behavior and educational programming for campus community members about harmful behavior.

And I am delighted to share we hired six new students, bringing our total student staff to 10!

Now you know why I am excited about another great year of growing, learning, and shifting campus culture to interrupt harm before it ever happens in the first place!

Our Team!

Chris Linder Allie Moore

Jilly Mcbane

Brenda Payan

Tillie Powell Sam Judd-Kim

Yulisa Padilla Whitney Hills

Lauren Rives Stacy Jenkins Brooke Adams

Student Projects

MCVP staff, with our students taking the lead, identified eight behaviors that could be harmful. Each behavior was then featured on a poster, with the posters distributed throughout our campus and on digital boards. The students also wrote blog posts that explained how the behavior might be harmful. These posts were linked on the posters through a QR code to our website.

The Daily Utah Chronicle wrote a story about the You Might Be Causing Harm If... campaign and the MCVP also shared it on its social media.

Since the campaign's debut, two other universities have engaged in similar projects based on the MCVP campaign.

Student Projects

Yulisa created a workshop on harmful behaviors and relationship and sexual violence. Working with Allie Moore, the center's graduate assistant, Yulisa presented the workshop to first-year students majoring in chemistry. Yulisa also worked on the Clery research project

Jilly launched a three-episode podcast called "The New Consent Narrative." The episodes covered primary prevention, how harm exists in relationships and advice on how to reduce harmful behaviors Jilly also wrote numerous blog's during the year on topics ranging from sexual scripts to hookup culture.

Sam created and presented a workshop for queer students on recognizing and preventing sexual violence in queer communities. The workshop was held during Pride Week on the U campus. Sam also worked on the content analysis research project

Student Projects

Lauren teamed up with Students United for Reproductive Freedom (SURF) on an event called Consensual Conversations, which was designed to foster a studentled discussion on how to think about consent in various situations and from different identities. Lauren also contributed numerous blogs during the year. Tillie revived the violence prevention book club, which was open to the entire campus. Over the course of five meetings, attendees read and discussed Tarana Burke's memoir "Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement" Tillie also presented the What is Harm workshop to students in the LEAP community.

Brenda wrote about the importance of testing for sexually transmitted diseases when you are sexually active as part of the 'You Might Be Causing Harm If...' campaign. Brenda also contributed blogs and social media content over the year

Research Initiatives

This year, we engaged in four major research projects, involving three undergraduate researchers, six graduate researchers, two student affairs practitioners, and five faculty members. We have also set up a major research initiative focused on better understanding harm and perpetration for next year. Our commitment to employing research to better inform practice means that we include practitioners on every research team we organize.

The Clery Project

The Clery Act, passed in 1990, requires colleges and universities to notify campus community members of certain crimes committee in certain geographical locations on and near campus. Through this project, we examined the impact of Clery timely warning alerts on students’ behaviors and experiences and sought to understand how decision makers and service providers navigated the implementation of Clery timely warnings.

Researcher Socialization Study

Led by Dr. Niah Grimes at Morgan State University, the MCVP is proud to support the Researcher Socialization Project. This project leads us to better understand the socialization of sexual violence researchers to inform research practices in the field.

Content Analysis Projects

Over the past year, we engaged in two major content analysis projects to better understand the research related to sexual violence among college students. In one, we sought to understand how students with minoritized identities were represented in the literature and the subject matter of research focused on sexual violence. Our second content analysis project examined the topics and methodologies employed in the research on campus sexual violence to compare the most recent five years of research with the previous 10 years of research.

Understanding Harm and Perpetration

Finally, we have set the groundwork to launch a major national research project next year focused on better understanding harm and perpetration. In collaboration with Dr. Nadeeka Karunaratne, we will facilitate three different research teams focused on better understanding harm: respondents experiences in the adjudication process, survivors’ perceptions of non-punitive responses to violence, and motivations and conceptualizations of sexual harm among college students. These research teams have been organized and will have an initial meeting in Summer 2023, followed by a potential inperson gathering in Fall 2023. The research teams consist of 22 people from across the U.S., with a heavy emphasis on including practitioners engaged in addressing sexual violence on college campuses.

Educational Workshop Series

During the Spring 2023 semester, Whitney Hills, associate director of education, facilitated an educational series Tuning in with the MCVP. The intent was for participants to feel more confident in identifying their role as a campus community member in ending sexual violence. This was a small but mighty group where each week the participants read, listened to podcasts, and discussed topics related to prevention, such as history of sexual violence, the role of oppression and power in sexual violence, consent, who causes harm, and alternatives to carceral responses. This group contributed to a greater sense of community among people on campus who are passionate about ending sexual violence!