WSU Presents LGBTQ+ Sexual Assault Prevention Curriculum

OGDEN, Utah – After a year of research, the Safe@Weber Violence Prevention Team in the Women’s Center at Weber State University has created a new sexual assault prevention workshop specific to LGBTQ+ students. They will present the workshop as part of Pride Week, June 1 from 1-4 p.m.in the Student Services Center and as a live event on the Women’s Center Facebook page, facebook.com/weberstatewomenscenter.

Poster created as part of the Photovoice project.

The workshop will teach LGBTQ+ college students, ages 18-25, healthy ways to navigate consent in sexual relationships.

“The most exciting part of this project is that this curriculum truly was built by the community for the community,” said Stephanie McClure, Women’s Center director. “Nearly 1,000 LGBTQ+ Utahns have helped shape our LGBTQ+ consent curriculum. I think this shows how invested the community is in working together to reduce harm and to ensure consent and safety in all aspects of our relationships.”

In 2016, the Center for Disease Control said that in order to be effective, students must feel that prevention curriculum represents them in some way, so they connect with the stories, scenarios and experiences being portrayed and analyzed.

After the WSU Women’s Center discovered there was no national curriculum targeting best practices for prevention specific to the LGBTQ+ community, they applied for a $50,000 grant from the Utah Department of Health to address the deficit. After receiving the grant, the center hired and trained five student researchers who have worked for one year administering surveys and running focus groups to identify community concerns and to create workshop curriculum.

The team also administered a Photovoice project, which captured images illustrating feelings, fears and experiences of LGBTQ+ students and community members. The Photovoice research method allows individuals to collect images as symbolic evidence of the world they see and experience. Several of the images are included in the new workshop curriculum.

The Women’s Center plans to apply for another grant to fund a training program, so they can start distributing the curriculum to non-profit, education organizations across the state next year.

Student researcher Muhammad Rafique said education is a key to sexual assault prevention awareness. “In our survey analysis,” he said. “We found people who have received prevention education and attended workshops on consent issues do a better job at getting consent.”

For more information, and to register for the workshop, visit weber.edu/womenscenter/curriculum.html.

Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.

Author:

Allison Barlow Hess, Director of Public Relations
801-626-7948 • ahess@weber.edu

Contact:

Stephanie McClure, Women’s Center director
801-626-6090 • womenscenter@weber.edu