A new student organization, Student Survivor Group, aims to help victims and survivors of sexual assault. This organization, founded by freshman Jenna Hoobler, is an organization where assault survivors can come together in a safe place and share their stories.
“I am a two times sexual assault survivor. I was assaulted as a child and in high school while I was in JROTC. After being assaulted, I started on the journey of advocacy in whatever way I could. Starting with taking a Consent Education Bill to Girls State Wyoming and it was passed,” Hoobler said.
“When I got to UW I learned about Green Dot and SAFE Project. I felt there was a missing link for people that had been assaulted before they came to campus. I wanted to create an organization for survivors to support one another.”
Hoobler learned about registered student organizations through researching other groups and her idea started to come to life. After months of deliberating what the group was going to be like, Hoobler decided the one thing she always needed was community and support from other survivors.
“I think therapy is great. But sometimes you just need a survivor to listen. I want people to know that being you can be a victim and a survivor. I am a victim of a crime. But I am a survivor of what happened. I want survivors to know that you are not alone,” Hoobler said.
Student Survivor Group is open to anybody including men, women, and anyone part of the LGBTQ+ community. Hoobler wants everyone to feel represented and welcomed in the space.
“The process to become a student organization has taken a long time. Receiving the funding and getting verified has taken quite a long time. Especially because of the amount of work I’ve had to do for planning for certain aspects like confidentiality agreements,” Hoobler said.
“Meetings are going to be more serious topics, survivors sharing stories if they want to. Everyone must sign our confidentiality rules agreement to attend which just says that you’re not going to share names. You’re not going to share stories, and you’re going to be respectful of other people and their stories.”
Not only will there be meetings for survivors, there will be events open to the public held in the Union to help create a bigger community.
“I’ve had so much support from different people in the community. I’ve had the psychology department who is going to have a professional counselor at every meeting, in case survivors need support. I’ve had support from Green Dot, SAFE Project, and the University of Wyoming itself. It’s become something that I never thought it would be,” Hoobler said.
Meetings will start in February of 2023. Signing up for meetings is completely confidential. Prospective members sign up through a Google Form so meeting times and locations will not be posted around campus. Through email they will receive the schedule and meeting locations.
Student Survivor Group can be contacted through their Instagram @uwyostudentsurvivorgroup and through QR codes on posters throughout campus.
