The Green Dot program offers training designed to reduce instances of sexual assault, relationship violence, and stalking.
Since its establishment on campus in 2020, 831 community members including students, staff and faculty have taken the training, according to violence prevention coordinator Michelle DiPasquale.
Last fall, DiPasquale said she trained an additional 250 undergraduate students.
ASUW Director of Wellness and Sustainability Rhiannon McLean said that bystander intervention was a useful tool for helping students gain the tools to prevent violence.
“A lot of people don’t step in because they don’t know how to,” McLean said.
DiPasquale said that part of the reason for bringing Green Dot to UW was existing personal violence levels among the campus community.
The 2018 Campus Climate Survey assessed instances of violence among UW students.
“In that survey, 27.1% of students had experienced sexual assault during their time here,” DiPasquale said.
“That survey showed that there was a need for something on campus to change the culture regarding violence whether that be intimate partner or sexual violence,” McLean said.
DiPasquale said that according to data from the national Green Dot site, the program had been linked to reduced rates of power-based personal violence.
“It was proven based on the Green Dot team’s assessment of the program themselves that it will reduce instances of power-based personal violence by 17% on a college campus,” DiPasquale said.
“Obviously we’re still in the early stages of Green Dot rolling out on campus and it’s something that takes time to fully see the effects of,” McLean said.
DiPasquale says that another Campus Climate Survey taking place in 2023 will be used to gain data on Green Dot’s effectiveness at preventing violence at UW.
“For the most part it seems that students are learning things and asking questions that they maybe wouldn’t have done otherwise, and I think that’s the goal of Green Dot,” McLean said.
“I work in prevention myself and Green Dot has given me tools that maybe I hadn’t thought about when it came to preventing situations that I was seeing happen around me and I think there are many students who are in the same boat.”
DiPasquale says that increasing numbers of students taking the Green Dot training is promising for the program.
“We already have over 40 students enrolled for sessions this spring, which is more than we had at this time in the fall,” DiPasquale said.
“People are recognizing the logo, which makes me excited,” DiPasquale said. “I think they’re starting to know what it is. Hopefully they talk about it more but change obviously takes time.”
Sophomore David Newell said that the program is a great way to gain the tools needed to step in and prevent violence, but that he doesn’t think the program is well known by everyone on campus.
“I think a lot of students, especially those not part of a student organization or leadership, don’t know much about green dot and what it entails,” Newell said.
DiPasquale said the Green Dot program is still trying to improve in the areas of inclusion and visibility.
“I also worked with other departments on campus, asking is this inclusive for every type of identity and group?” DiPasquale said. “I think there’s always things to think about and there’s always ways to continue to improve in that regard.”
“What I do like about the program though is that it is written into the curriculum, that this kind of violence impacts everyone, regardless of our identities.”
For more information, visit the Green Dot website: https://www.uwyo.edu/greendot/
