Link the Training to Your Institution’s Sexual Violence and Misconduct Policy

The Sexual Violence and Misconduct Policy Act (2016) requires all B.C. public post-secondary institutions to have a sexual violence and misconduct policy. Institutions are required to review their policies at least every three years and to include consultation with students as part of the review.

As you prepare your training materials, you will want to make sure that you have the most up-to-date version of your institution’s policy. Every institution has different definitions of sexual violence and misconduct and you will want to revise the training materials to reflect this and include links to the policy in all resources.

If your institution does not have a plain language summary of the policy, you may want to collaborate with on-campus organizations to develop one. Within a campus community, English literacy levels will vary enormously. As well, an accessible policy helps to support victims and survivors of sexual violence in having control and autonomy over their options related to making a disclosure, making a report, and accessing supports, accommodations, and other resources.

Link the Training to Your Institution’s Procedures and Protocols

As you prepare your training, you may want to learn more about your institution’s protocols and procedures related to sexual violence. These protocols and procedures will describe the roles and responsibilities of various departments, services, staff and faculty following a disclosure of sexual violence. It can be helpful to include some specific information about what happens following a disclosure in your training and/or to be able to respond to questions that learners might have.

You also may be designing and delivering your training for students, staff, faculty, and administrators who may be involved in responding to disclosures. You may want to ask about what kind of training they are interested in, e.g., online or in-person, length, “Level 1” or “Level 2.” You will also want to ensure that your training reaches individuals from different areas of the campus community.

Link the Training to On-Campus and Community Resources and Supports

Collaborating with groups and organizations on your campus and in the community can increase the accessibility and effectiveness of your training. Collaboration can lead to the development of new resources, opportunities for including the latest research and best practices on sexual violence prevention and response, and opportunities for co-hosting training and involving guest speakers (such as community support workers or Elders) and a greater diversity of facilitators. Some of the groups you might consider include:

• Faculty, staff, and students from all departments and areas of campus
• Campus-based sexual assault support centres
• Community-based sexual assault response programs and anti-violence programs and services
• Campus-based health and counselling services
• Campus security
• Victim services programs and law enforcement
• Hospital- and community-based health services
• Institutional representatives from senior administration
• Indigenous people and communities (see Indigenous Considerations in the next section)
• Community-based organizations such as multicultural organizations that serve diverse populations and provide support related to sexual violence

Building relationships with a variety of student groups can be one of the most important ways of enhancing your training. This can include international students, students with disabilities, LGBTQ2SIA+ students, Indigenous students, graduate students, fraternities and sororities, and students involved in sex work. They will be able to provide perspectives on the issues that are important or relevant to them and provide guidance on issues such as inclusive language, when and where to hold trainings to increase participation, and barriers to accessing supports and services.

You will want to update any existing lists of resources and supports related to sexual violence. It is good practice to include both on-campus and community-based organizations, 24/7 supports as well as supports specific to various communities (e.g., LGBTQ2SIA+ people, multicultural groups). For information about community based anti-violence organizations, VictimLink B.C. (1-800-563-0808) is a good starting place as they will be able to connect you with organizations in your community.

Developing and delivering training on sexual violence can be an opportunity to build upon existing work at your institution toward Indigenization, decolonization, and reconciliation.

Territory Acknowledgement

Acknowledging the traditional lands of the Indigenous people on which you live, work, and study is an important way to begin an event or meeting and can be included as part of classroom activities and taught to students. Meaningful territory acknowledgements allow you to develop a closer and deeper relationship with not only the land but the traditional stewards and peoples whose territory you reside, work, live, and prosper in.

Acknowledging the territory within the context of sexual violence training will open a person’s perspective to traditional ways of knowing and being, stepping out of an organizational structure and allowing you to delve into the person’s own perceptions, needs and abilities.

When we speak about sexual violence, we cannot do so without highlighting the direct connection to tactics used to colonize and assimilate the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island (North America). Sexual violence is intimately intertwined in Indigenous peoples ongoing traumas from colonization; from first contact in North America, to the horrific abuses perpetrated upon children in Residential Schools, the occupation of land and accessing of natural resources without consent, to the forced sterilization of Indigenous women, to the thousands of Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people as victims of sexual or physical violence and death as highlighted by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Commission of Canada.

Territory acknowledgements are designed as the very first step to reconciliation. What we do with the knowledge of whose traditional lands we are on is the next important step.

Some questions to consider as you acknowledge your territory:

• What do we do as good guests here?
•  And what can you do in your personal and professional roles to contribute to reconciliation?
• How do we honour the resistance and resilience of Indigenous peoples in this work?

Should your institution have an approved territory acknowledgement please use that to open the session(s); however, we invite you to consider how to make that institution statement more personal and specific to you, in that moment and in the work you are about to delve into with learners.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action explicitly state that each of us as members of Canadian society have a direct responsibility to contribute to reconciliation; how we discuss colonization in relation to sexual violence is a direct response to that responsibility.

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is an international instrument adopted by the United Nations on September 13, 2007, to enshrine (according to Article 43) the rights that “constitute the minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world.” UNDRIP was adopted into the B.C. provincial legislature on November 26, 2019. Centering the history of colonization as a background and framework to sexual violence and misconduct both from a historical as well as current ongoing struggle is in direct response to our legal and moral obligation as members of Canadian society.

Curriculum Development and Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being

Indigenization is a process of naturalizing and valuing Indigenous knowledge systems (Antoine et al., 2018; Little Bear, 2009). In the context of post-secondary institutions, this involves bringing Indigenous knowledge and approaches together with Western knowledge systems. This benefits not only Indigenous learners but all students, staff, faculty and campus community members involved or impacted by Indigenization.

As you adapt this training for your particular context, consider how and in what ways you might interweave Indigenous content and approaches. Examples of how you might include an understanding of Indigenous ways of knowing and being:

• Incorporate Indigenous pedagogical approaches such as holistic and relational perspectives, experiential learning, place-based learning, and intergenerational learning
• Involve Indigenous students, faculty and staff with reviewing, adapting, and evaluating resources
• Integrate knowledge from Indigenous communities local to your institution.

As you do this work, as an Indigenous or non-Indigenous person, you will want to continue to draw upon and build on existing relationships with Indigenous people, both within and outside of your institution. As a way of continuing to work in intentional and respectful ways, you may want to reflect on questions such as:

• How does this work benefit Indigenous communities and help them to meet their goals?
•  Will there be benefits for Indigenous students, faculty, and staff?
• Have the community or communities identified their own priorities or goals related to this work?
• How can this work support Indigenous efforts related to healing from past and ongoing colonial and sexual violence?

In 2018, there were nearly 500,000 international students in Canada at all levels of study which was an 17% increase from 2017 (Canadian Bureau for International Education, 2018). B.C. hosts the second largest international student population next to Ontario, followed by Quebec.

International students may be at significant increased risk of being targeted for sexual violence and may face unique barriers to reporting and accessing supports (see Section 2: International Students for more information about barriers). According to the B.C. International Student Survey, international students rely primarily on other international students from their home country and from other countries for their primary sources of support, especially for non-academic issues (Adamosky, 2015). Consequently, international students who are survivors of sexual assault will be more likely to disclose the sexual assault and gain support from other the international students. International students who experience or who are impacted by sexual violence are also significantly less likely to seek help from counselling services due to language barriers and cultural differences (Mori, 2000). To make matters more complex, cultural perspectives of violence and rape myths differ from one culture to another (Bonistall Postel, 2017). Thus, international students might have difficulty identifying sexual violence and responding to disclosures of sexual assault. Therefore, it is important for post-secondary institutions to play a role in equipping international students with basic understanding on how to best respond, support, and advocate for their peers in an appropriate and sensitive matter that does not further traumatize the survivor.

Post-secondary institutions should involve international students in the development and implementation of training on sexual violence. They are the experts and can identify the gaps and needs of their peer groups and as individuals. Facilitators can develop the training agenda based on their needs and be prepared with the relevant safety resources that include community organizations and groups, translated materials and supports.  Post-secondary institutions can build partnerships with organizations that are providing support to international students who can share the collateral they have, e.g., safety booklets, infographics and educational materials (see, for example, the International Student Safety Guide developed by MOSAIC).

The term social location is often used by facilitators working in the anti-violence sector (Baker et al, 2015; Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses, 2018; Simpson, 2009). The concept of social location comes from the field of sociology and describes the groups that people belong to because of their place or position in society. An individual’s social location is defined by a combination of factors such as gender, race, social class, age, ability, religion, sexual orientation, and geographic location. This makes social location unique to each individual – no two individuals will have the exact same social location.

Social location is important because it strongly influences our identity, or our sense of self, and how we see the world. When it comes to the topic of sexual violence, we all have different experiences, values, beliefs, attitudes, strengths, and vulnerabilities. It can be helpful to try to understand your social location in order to be able to facilitate across all these differences. Here are some questions to help with that process:

• What is your social location relative to your audience?
• Based on your social location, in what ways are you able to and unable to relate to the experiences in your audience?
•  In what ways, or through what aspects of your social location, do you experience privilege? (You can think of privilege as an advantage that you have because you belong to a certain group, e.g., being male or middle-class). In what ways could this impact your role as a facilitator?
•  In what ways, or through what aspects of your social location, do you experience oppression? (A simple way of understanding oppression is to see it as a lack of privilege or disadvantages from belonging to a certain group. Keep in mind that multiple factors affect our social location so we can experience both privilege and oppression simultaneously). In what ways could this impact your role as a facilitator?
• How do you think your social location affects your approach to education and the way your work with people?
• How do you think your social location affects your approach to the topic of sexual violence?

To facilitate across difference means to be grounded in an awareness of your own social location. As a facilitator, you will want to recognize the diversity of social locations of your audience and to value the knowledge and experience learners bring with them. At a practical level, this understanding can help you raise issues related to sexual violence in a way that will create a safer space for all learners. An awareness of your own social location allows you to engage in conversations about how social location influences experiences of sexual violence and provides a foundation for unpacking assumptions, championing new ideas, and promoting values central to creating safer campuses.

Individuals with a background in anti-violence work, human service work (i.e., social work, child and youth care), health services (i.e., nursing), or those that have experience and knowledge in issues related to social justice, criminology, and mental health are well suited to facilitating training on sexual violence. If resources are available, you will ideally want to have facilitators from a range of social locations deliver training related to sexual violence prevention and response. Having facilitators of diverse backgrounds is important in creating safe, inclusive, and welcoming learning environments for diverse learners.

For example, when delivering to student groups, a peer-to-peer facilitation model can help to increase credibility of the training as well as have other benefits such as empowerment of facilitators (Hines & Palm Reed, 2015; McMahon et al., 2013; McMahon et al., 2014; Turner & Shepard, 1999). Transgender, non-binary, Two-Spirit and other queer people benefit from learning about sex and sexual violence from facilitators who share their personal lived experiences and have developed an analysis of the negative impacts of systemic queerphobia on LGBTQ2SIA+ people.

With mixed audiences, whenever possible, co-facilitation teams should include people of differing social locations and experiences. For example, a transgender or non-binary facilitator could be paired with a cisgender/heterosexual facilitator. This is beneficial for two reasons: transgender, queer, and non-binary audiences may connect more and feel safer with a facilitator of similar lived experience and the other facilitator can carry the burden of diffusing problematic situations that may arise from (sometimes well-intentioned) queerphobic comments. In short, a pairing of non-queer and queer facilitators may create safe spaces for queer learners and facilitators (Rensburg & Smith, 2020). In general, a diversity of facilitators demonstrates that sexual violence is an issue relevant to people of all genders and social locations (Moynihan et al., 2012; Roy et al., 2013).

Accessibility

Accessibility typically refers to all the ways in which the training environment, delivery and participation options, and materials are designed to allow for people from a variety of backgrounds, abilities, and learning preferences to participate fully. Your institution will likely have policies, resources and supports related to accessibility that you can build on as you prepare to deliver training on sexual violence. Below is a list of strategies you may want to consider in order to make your training more accessible and inclusive.

Environment

• Are teaching and learning spaces physically accessible by those who use a wheelchair or other mobility aids? Are there chairs available that accommodate various body sizes?
• Are washrooms both physically accessible and designated as gender-neutral?
• If facilitating online, is the learning platform accessible to people using assistive technologies and a variety of devices?

Delivery and participation options

• During registration or sign-up, have you communicated what accessibility supports are available and asked whether learners have any accessibility requirements, e.g., “Is there something we can do to support your access and participation in this training?”
• Are a variety of learning methods being used? E.g., in an online workshop, methods such as asking questions, using breakout rooms, using the chatbox, reflective activities, polling or whiteboard features.
• If facilitating online, is captioning provided? Many web conferencing platforms have automatic captioning that can be turned on.
• When possible, is there support for child care or honoraria?

Materials

• If available, are learning materials provided in multiple formats and languages?
• Are you using plain language in your learning materials and delivery? (E.g., using a familiar term over the latest technological term, using several clear words or a familiar word instead of one complicated term such as “communication” instead of “discourse”)
• Do learning materials (e.g., images, statistics) include representation from learners of all backgrounds?
• Are learning materials available in digital formats that are accessible to people using assistive technologies? Do images have text descriptions? Often, these materials can be run through an accessibility checker (many word processing programs have these built in).

Creating Space

For sexual violence training to be successful, learners need to feel comfortable, safe, and respected. As you prepare to facilitate, you will want to consider factors such as when and where to hold the training, key messages on promotional materials, the use of group guidelines, ensuring diverse representation, using icebreakers, whether activities require self-disclosure, and ways of working with co-facilitators or guests. In this section, we discuss several strategies for helping to create a positive learning space.

Opening with intention

Facilitators have an enormous role to play in setting the “tone” for a session. As people enter the space (online or in-person), you can welcome them and help them get oriented. You can let them know if you’ve started or whether you’re waiting for a few more people and share “housekeeping information” such as where the bathrooms are, where they can put their things, or how to use online interactive features. If the training will include interactive or discussion-based activities, you may want to consider using an icebreaker activity to help people get to know each other ahead of time. As you begin your session, you can use opening questions that help create inclusivity such as correct pronouns, check-in questions, or information about accessibility needs and requests.

Community or group guidelines

Community or group guidelines are an activity that brings groups together to decide how they will interact and support each other. This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to 30 minutes. If you are facilitating a short training (e.g., a one-hour lunch time session) or a training in which learners may not be interacting extensively with each other, creating community guidelines may not make sense. Instead, you might ask learners to agree to a list of guidelines or a code of conduct when they register or sign-up for the training. Or, you might share a list of guidelines at the beginning of the training and ask learners if they feel comfortable with them and/or if they have something they would like to add or change.

For longer sessions (e.g., a three-hour workshop) or for training that involves multiple sessions over a period of time, community guidelines can be an important tool for supporting safer discussion about difficult topics. You can remind learners of the guidelines if the discussion is getting difficult or at the beginning of each session. Important group agreements relate to listening to and showing respect for others (e.g., not talking when others are speaking, not making rude comments, or not talking on the phone), confidentiality, and participation.

Content warnings

Content warnings (also called trigger warnings) are a statement made prior to sharing potentially difficult or challenging material. The intent of content warnings is to provide learners with the opportunity to prepare themselves emotionally for engaging with the topic or to make a choice to not participate.

Different departments and institutions will have different approaches to content warnings and this may guide your decision about including content warnings on registration or sign-up forms, in learning materials, and in the learning environment. Below is an example of a content warning:

“We will be discussing topics related to sexual violence in this training. During the training, you can choose not to participate in certain activities or discussion and can leave the room at any time. If you feel upset or overwhelmed, please know that there are resources to support you.”

There are a number of other facilitation strategies you may want to consider in addition to or instead of a content warning:

• When discussing difficult content, check in with learners from time to time. Ask them how they are doing, whether they need a break, etc. Let them know that you are aware that the content is difficult.
• Ask people to be mindful of their fellow learners during the discussion and remind them that survivors of sexual violence are present in the room (regardless of whether this information has been shared with others).
• If you are meeting regularly with a group of learners over time, you can give them advance notice (e.g., two weeks) about potentially difficult content.
• You can “scaffold” your learning process/materials so that you do not start with the most difficult content at the beginning of your training or you can make connections to other resources and training on sexual violence. In some learning contexts, you may be able to let students move through content at their own pace.
• Consider how graphic or “strong” your language is. Sometimes, we may use strong language to make a point or emphasize the seriousness of an issue. Ask yourself whether this is necessary and what alternatives might be equally effective at communicating your message while reducing the probability of activating someone’s trauma.

Gender & LGBTQ2SIA+ Inclusive Language

Inclusive language is important and helps avoid making assumptions about others. As a facilitator, you will want to use language that is inclusive of all people regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, sex assigned at birth, and marital or romantic status.

Because your audience is likely to be diverse, it’s important to be respectful of the many ways they experience gender, attraction, and relationships. Choose examples, scenarios, statistics, and images that are non-gendered or inclusive of LGBTQ2SIA+ people and relationships. Sexual violence is not exclusive; it can happen to and be perpetuated by people of diverse genders, sexes, and attractions.

If you are speaking in general terms, take care to choose terms like “intimate partner or partners” instead of “husband,” “wife,” “boyfriend” or “girlfriend.” If you are referring to a specific person’s intimate partner, use the same language they use. If a person refers to their intimate partner as their “spouse” or “wife,” you should use the word they do instead of referring to their “partner.”

Likewise, addressing learners using inclusive language will ensure a sense of safety for learners. For example, “Good afternoon, everyone,” “Hello, folks,” and “Have a good break, human beings” are inclusive of transgender, non-binary, Two Spirit, and gender diverse people while “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen” is exclusive.  Similarly, avoid everyday gendered language (e.g. man hours, spokesman, and waitress should be replaced with work hours, spokesperson/speaker, and server) or historically oppressive turns of phrases such as “rule of thumb.” Try using language such as “someone of another gender” and “people of all genders” rather than “the opposite sex” or “both genders.”

Be careful to address or refer to people with similar titles in similar ways, regardless of their gender identity. If you refer to a cisgender male professor as “Dr. Last Name,” as a default, refer to all professors as “Dr. Last Name.”

Don’t assume pronouns, sexual orientation (attraction) or gender identity based on someone’s name or appearance. Invite all learners, guests, and co-facilitators to indicate their pronouns and their preferred name on their nametag or in their online display names, if they feel safe doing so. Explain that sharing our pronouns is a way to act in solidarity with some people who are gender diverse, transgender, non-binary, and Two Spirit people, but that, ultimately, it is a way to be inclusive of all people.

Examples of gender inclusive language:

Trauma Awareness

Experiences of trauma and violence are common in our society. Many people participating in sexual violence training will have experiences of past or current trauma and many facilitators will have experiences of trauma themselves. There are a number of strategies you can use to help create a “trauma aware” learning space.

• At the beginning of the training, acknowledge that the topics you will be discussing are difficult and let learners know that they have the right and freedom to take care of themselves in a way that works for them. In particular, let learners know that they can leave the room or choose not to participate in an activity. You could say something like “If at any time you feel you need to leave, that’s fine with me. You are empowered to take care of yourself.” You can also let learners know that reactions to difficult material can sometimes be delayed and that they may wish to connect with you a few days after the training or to access support from family, friends, or other people in their lives.
•  If you do notice that someone has left the group and you suspect that they were reminded of previous trauma by the session, follow-up with them one-one-one after the session to check-in and offer them any resources that you think might be helpful to them.
•  During the training, if the conversation becomes “intense” or you believe that a number of learners have become overwhelmed or affected by the discussion, it can be helpful to take a break or use an activity that involves the body or movement to help people re-connect to the present moment.
• Sometimes, during training on sexual violence, learners may realize that they have experienced things that are defined as violence. BEFORE you start facilitating in this area, you will want to ensure that you are knowledgeable about receiving disclosures and how to support trauma survivors as well as available supports and resources on campus and in the community. Some institutions have developed practices such as expedited counselling for learners who might need support after a training session or making intensive crisis supports available for a short-time after a training or particular initiative.
• Similarly, some learners may realize that they have done things to others that would be identified as violent. You may need to provide them with some initial support before referring them to available resources and services.
• Let learners know that you will be available after the training if they would like to debrief or share their responses to the session or how they are feeling. If possible, schedule at least 30 minutes after a session so that you can be available to your learners. If you are delivering training in an online context, you can let learners know that they can private message/email you.
• If you feel comfortable, you can share information about grounding activities or a link to a resource. Grounding activities are simple activities that can help people to relax, stay present, and re-connect to the “here and now” following a trauma response. Examples include pressing or “rooting” your feet into the ground, breathing slowly in and out for a count of 2, repeating a statement such as “I am safe now. I can relax,” or using your five senses to describe the environment in detail.
• If you are concerned about a learner, ask them if they would find it helpful for you to “check in” with them later in the day or the following day. You could also ask them if they have a friend or family member that they might find it helpful for them to speak with following the training. If so, help them make a plan to connect with them, e.g., via phone or text or in-person or at a certain time.

A note on language

People who have experienced trauma may describe themselves as a “victim” or “survivor” or “victim/survivor” of trauma. These words have their own history and meanings. Language is imperfect and constantly evolving and there is no one best or “correct” word. Do your best to use the term that people prefer whether that be “victim” or “survivor” or something else entirely and don’t be afraid to respectfully ask if you are unsure.

International Students

As a facilitator, you will want to ensure that you are knowledgeable and prepared to address the distinct and specific needs of multicultural and diverse communities. International students are one group that you may want to consider. They may be at significant increased risk of being targeted for sexual violence, due to multiple barriers they face including lower levels of English language fluency, a lack of understanding of criminal law in Canada, cultural views of sexual violence, discrimination, racism, a need to adjust to local culture and limited local support systems (Forbes-Mewett and McCulloch, 2016). Furthermore, they may not understand the legal definitions of sexual violence and what consent means, and where to find help.

It is important to highlight that international students are not weak or vulnerable; rather they are quite resilient and determined to thrive and make Canada their home. It takes positive determination to leave the safety of family, financial stability and social network. However, once here, they may face the additional challenges from within their own ethno-specific community while also experiencing homesickness, loneliness and helplessness as part of their acculturation into Canadian society.

As a facilitator, there are a number of strategies you can take to ensure the inclusion and participation of international students:

• Consider language barriers. Using plain language or translated materials and slow down the pace as you go through complex material.
• Learn about translated sexual violence resources and community supports that include services in diverse languages.
• Provide opportunities for participation while also considering safety. Be aware that some female international students may not be comfortable speaking about topics related to sexual violence if other male students are present.
• Be aware of community resources and supports available to international students so that you can share them with learners either verbally or in written form (or both).
• Consider collaborating with community organizations such as MOSAIC so that a support worker can be available to international students, if needed.

Image descriptions

“Challenges Faced by International Students” image description

An infographic with the following text:

International students have to navigate a new country on their own and face unique barriers and complexities compared to domestic students, especially when it comes to sexual violence.

• General lack of knowledge of Canadian laws & rights.
  • Unaware of laws around sexual assault/harassment/consent
  • Work exploitation by employer
  • Exploitation by landlords
• Misperception of consent & sexual assault & barriers to reporting.
  • Lack of knowledge of reporting options
  • Cultural/language barriers make it difficult to identify sexual assault
  • Lack of knowledge of available medical services/community resources
• Fear of deportation and the police.
  • Leads to lack of reporting
  • More likely to be threatened with deportation by employers/landlords
• Process of acculturation/language/cultural barriers.
  • Language barriers create obstacles in seeking support
  • Cultural differences create difficulties in receiving appropriate support
  • Pressure to assimilate to Canadian culture
• Racism, homophobia, transphobia, and racial profiling.
  • Lack of trust with law/police
  • Victims of hate crimes
• Lack of friends or a support network. Isolation and homesickness/struggling with independency.
  • Social exclusion from mainstream Canadian society
  • Isolated from campus community
  • Stress/loneliness of moving to another country
  • Don’t know where to go for support

End of image description. [Return to place in text]

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is a concept that promotes an understanding of people as shaped by the interactions of different social locations or categories ― for example, race, ethnicity, Indigeneity, gender, class, sexuality, geography, age, ability, migration status, and religion.

In the context of sexual violence, intersectionality can help increase understanding of how certain populations face increased risks of perpetrating sexual violence and others face increased risks of being targeted by sexual violence. It also highlights how different groups of people experience systemic barriers to disclosing and accessing support services. It can also help ensure that responses to sexual violence are attentive to and reflective of the diversity of campus communities.

Examples of facilitation strategies related to the concept of intersectionality

1. As you facilitate discussion, you can highlight key ideas related to sexual violence and intersectionality. For example, you could say:
   • “Violence does not happen in a vacuum and it isn’t merely a result of individual circumstances or bad luck.”
   • “People’s circumstances, such as their income, housing situation, and access to health care, can affect their ability to access resources to heal from their experiences.”
   • “When we take a look at ‘big picture’ issues like discrimination, economic conditions, and social policies, we can better understand why certain individuals might be reluctant to report that they have been assaulted.”
   • “Even though LGBTQ2SIA+ people experience high rates of violence, when compared to the general population, they are often fearful of accessing the justice system due to a history of negative interactions with police and daily experiences of discrimination and harassment.”
   • “Many international students are resilient and determined to thrive and make Canada their home. However, they might face unique barriers when it comes to sexual violence such as language barriers, lack of knowledge about services and supports, or work exploitation.”
2. In your training, include statistics, images, and other resources that reflect the perspectives, needs, experiences, and interests of diverse groups. For example, images of a mixed race queer couple with a visible disability gives recognition that race, sexual orientation, and ability can be places of diversity within one relationship. Or, include statistics on sexual violence and resilience within queer and polyamorous couples as well as straight, monogamous couples.
3. If you are using statistics about a particular group of people, use precise language to avoid confusion. For example, “Men are likely to be the perpetrators of sexual violence against women” is less accurate than “Cisgender men are likely to be the perpetrators of sexual violence against all other genders, especially against cisgender women.” Your use of precise language will vary based on the information you will be sharing,
4. Depending on your audience, you can include a resource or section about intersectionality in your training. This could be a more academic resource such as an interview with legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw (while many people have used intersectional perspectives in their work, her use of the term in 1989 has greatly influenced current understandings) or an experiential resource such as an interview or spoken word video by a survivor of sexual violence that highlights multiple social locations.
5. If you have more time, you can include a reflective activity such as the Power Flower (below).

Sex, Gender, and Gender Identity

Because of the power inherent in sex and gender dynamics and the role they play in our lives, addressing sex, gender, and gender identity in discussions about sexual violence is essential. Gender can be a complex topic to discuss as there are many elements to consider such as identity, expression, orientation, and sex. Western understandings of sex, gender and gender identity have evolved from a binary view (two options: male and female) to a spectrum which suggests there are multiple sexes (male, female, intersex), many gender identities, and a wide range of gender expressions that may or may not conform to societal expectations. Many cultures have respect and recognition for more than two sexes, genders or gender identities. This is true not only abroad, but among many nations Indigenous to Turtle Island (North America).

As a facilitator, you will want to be familiar with key terms used to discuss gender. These terms are continuing to evolve and it is important to refer to people using their own terms.

Examples of facilitation strategies related to the concepts of sex, gender, and gender identity

1. When talking about diverse experiences of sexual violence, take care to be both inclusive of LGBTQ2SIA+ people while being precise when talking specifically about sexual violence committed by cisgender men against cisgender women.
   Key discussion points can include:
   • The overwhelming majority of acts of sexual violence are committed by cisgender men against cisgender women and girls and people of other genders. Transgender, Two-Spirit, and non-binary people as well as lesbian, gay, and other queer people are disproportionately targeted by perpetrators of sexual violence.
   • It’s important to remember that straight, cisgender men and boys can also be targeted and that people of all genders and sexual orientations may be perpetrators of sexual violence.
   • We need to be mindful of the experiences of all victims of sexual violence while not minimizing the deep-rooted experiences of violence that cisgender women, girls, and gender diverse people are subjected to by cisgender men.
   • Gendered sexual violence exists and thrives in the context of colonialism which privileges straight, white, able-bodied men while unjustly mistreating LGBTQ2SIA+, BIPOC, and disabled people. Because of these intersecting oppressions, people of colour, women, children, and queer people are especially at risk of being targeted by sexual violence.
2. Help people learn more about gender by including an activity in your training that explores concepts such as gender identity, attraction (sexual orientation), and gender expression (presentation).

   Activity: Gender Unicorn

   The Gender Unicorn is a visual activity by Trans Student Educational Resources that allows learners to map out of their own experiences of sex and gender. It is available in an interactive form, as a colouring book, and in different languages. (It uses a Creative Commons license and can be shared as long as credit is given.)

   

3. When facilitating, pay attention to the pronouns that you use as they are an important part of language related to gender. In addition to the binary English terms “she/her/her” and “he/his/him,” some people use gender-neutral pronouns such as “they/them” (in singular form). Use the pronouns that correspond to a person’s gender identity. As it is not possible to assume pronouns based on appearances, it is a good practice to ask for a person’s pronouns. For some people, being referred to intentionally and repeatedly with inappropriate or incorrect pronouns (or being “misgendered”) can be hurtful, offensive, and violent.

Roots of Violence

There are many different theories and perspectives about what the causes of sexual violence in our society are. Discussions about ideas such as social constructions of gender roles, colonialism, enslavement, and patriarchy can help us to explore and understand the root causes of sexual violence and to collectively find answers and solutions.

The term “rape culture” was first coined in the 1970s in the United States by second-wave feminists and the concept is often used in sexual violence prevention training in post-secondary institutions. Rape culture describes how sexual violence is common in our society and how it is normalized, condoned, excused, or encouraged. Examples of rape culture include the public tolerance of sexual harassment, the prevalence of sexual violence in media, the socialization of boys that promotes masculine identities based on notions of power and control, persistent discrimination against women and other equity-seeking communities, and the scrutiny given to the sexual histories of victims of sexual violence (Baker, 2014; EVA-BC, 2016).

Many aspects of rape culture are often conceptualized as a continuum or pyramid or can be connected to other forms of violence in society.

Examples of facilitation strategies related to the concept of roots of violence

1. Ask learners about their perceptions of campus safety: Do they feel safe all the time? Some of the time? What affects their sense of safety? What kind of role do we as campus community members have in preventing sexual violence and/or helping to promote norms of respect, safety, equity, and helping others? (As safety can be a deeply personal subject, you may want to facilitate this discussion in a structured way such as using specific examples or asking questions that require limited self-disclosure).
2. You can connect your training to current events and media coverage, e.g., a news story about a high-profile sexual assault case that is in court, the latest opinions about the activities of a famous or infamous celebrity. To what extent are individuals held responsible for their actions and to what extent is society?
3. You can include a section in your training on critical media analysis, e.g., reviewing advertisements and exploring what messages they communicate about dating, relationships, and sex. Do these advertisements reflect or challenge current attitudes and stereotypes about sexual violence?

Colonial Violence

Colonialism occurs when a group of people take control of other lands, regions, or territories outside of their own by turning those other lands, regions, or territories into a colony.

Colonialism remains embedded in the legal, political and economic context of Canada today.

Sexual violence and colonialism are interconnected through concepts such as self-determination, autonomy and consent. As well, many social norms in Canada are founded on colonial beliefs which are rooted in white patriarchal supremacy and which have created systems that support individuals, predominantly white men, to positions of power. These norms provide an illusion that people are entitled to what others have, including lands, cultures, and people’s bodies and that force is an acceptable way to claim these things, regardless of the harm to others (National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, 2019; Turpel-Lafond, 2020; Women’s Earth Alliance and Native Youth Sexual Health Network, 2016). An understanding of past and ongoing colonial violence can help provide context to issues such as why many Indigenous people and communities experience high rates of sexual violence today and the potential systemic or historical barriers to Indigenous People reporting sexual violence when it occurs.

Examples of facilitation strategies related to the concept of colonial violence

1. During your training, you can discuss how your institution and/or campus unit/department is demonstrating accountability to Indigenous communities and peoples whose land you are on. It is especially important to highlight that reconciliation is a journey and not a destination. This helps to be able to speak frankly about the limitations or meaningfulness of specific initiatives and policies at your institution and to respectfully acknowledge the difficulty in repairing hundreds of years of harm.
2. During discussions, you can make connections between colonization (non-consensual theft of land and violence/devaluing of Indigenous People, women, Two-Spirited people and members of the LGBTQ2SIA+ community) and sexual violence (non-consensual sexual touch and/or behavior, devaluing of people’s autonomy). In particular, you can make a connection between land and consent – Canada as a nation is built upon a fundamental lack of consent of Indigenous peoples
3. Many people from diverse parts of the world have their own experiences of colonial violence and oppression. It can be helpful to acknowledge this as it helps people to build connections between their own experiences and those of Indigenous People. You will also want to keep in mind that individuals from these groups may be reminded of their own experiences when hearing about the injustices faced by Indigenous People and may benefit from learning about additional resources and supports.
4. When discussing the impact of sexual violence as a tool of colonization and genocide against Indigenous communities, you can also highlight the resiliency and capacity of Indigenous peoples and communities to resist and overcome violence.

Activity: Colonial Violence Wheel

This Colonial Violence Wheel is a visual tool that can be used to help further discussion on the connections between colonial violence and sexual violence. Each section of the wheel provides examples of strategies, policies, and laws that have been enacted by the Canadian government to colonize and assimilate Indigenous people. Discussion questions can include:

1. What do you already know about colonialism in Canada? What aspects of these strategies, policies and laws do you see in your life?
2. How do the strategies, policies, and laws described in the Wheel connect to sexism, racism, and other forms of discrimination?
3. How does colonial violence connect to sexual violence? For example, what is the connection between self-determination at an individual level (control of one’s own body) and at a community level (First Nations self-governance)?

Download the Colonial Violence Wheel Activity here: Handout Colonial Violence Wheel Activity [Word file].

Healthy and Toxic Masculinity

“Healthy masculinity” and “toxic masculinity” are popular terms often used to explore beliefs, values, and stereotypes related to male identity and masculine norms in society. Masculine identity and norms are strongly linked with violence, with men and boys disproportionately likely both to perpetrate violent crimes and to die by homicide and suicide (Heilman and Barker, 2018).

Training on sexual violence on campuses will often explore ideas related to masculinity as a way of helping to shifting societal ideas about masculinity and to centre new values related to inclusivity and diversity. These conversations can help highlight how sexual violence harms people of all genders, including boys, men, and masculine people. It also can be an entry point for cisgender men to take a role in addressing sexual violence in their community.

Examples of facilitation strategies related to healthy and toxic masculinity

1. When discussing toxic masculinity is important to be clear that this term does not mean that men are bad or evil. It does not mean that men are naturally violent or that only men are violent.
2. The topic of healthy and toxic masculinity can often fit well in discussions of why sexual violence happens in society. Questions to explore can include:
   1. What ideas do we as a society have about what it means to “be a man”?
   2. Who or what defines masculinity in our society?
   3. How does this affect boys, men, and masculine people?
   4. How might these ideas be related to sexual violence against all genders in our society?
   5. Can you be masculine without being aggressive or violent?
   6. How might the experience of masculinity differ for a non-binary person, a trans-masculine person or a masculine woman versus a man who was assigned male at birth?
3. Support boys, men, and masculine people in re-defining what healthy masculinity looks like for them. Suggest that there is more than one way to be a man (or any other gender identity). Connect healthy masculinity to topics such as asking consent, respecting boundaries, and being accountable.

Image descriptions

Gender Unicorn image description.

A purple cartoon unicorn stands beside different ways to describe gender, sex, and attraction. They are as follows:

• Gender identity (a spectrum):
  • Female/woman/girl
  • Male/man/boy
  • Other gender(s)
• Gender expression (a spectrum)
  • Feminine
  • Masculine
  • Other
• Sex assigned at birth
  • Female
  • Male
  • Intersex
• Physically attracted to (a spectrum)
  • Women
  • Men
  • Other gender(s)
• Emotionally attracted to (a spectrum)
  • Women
  • Men
  • Other gender(s)

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Anti-Violence Continuum/Pyramid image description.

A pyramid representing different aspects of rape culture. As you go to higher levels of the pyramid, the degree of discrimination increases. These are the levels of the pyramid from low to high:

• Attitudes and beliefs, including ableism, racism, sexism, homophabia, transphobia, and ageism.
• Cultural microaggressions, which can be subtle, intentional, or unintentional. These can include social exclusion, misrepresentation, and cultural invisibility.
• Verbal expression, which can include sexual harassment and making sexual jokes.
• Physical expression, which can include physical and/or sexual assault.
• Homicide and or suicide.

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Colonial Violence Wheel image description.

A wheel with the words “colonial violence” in the centre. Within each spoke of the wheel are examples of colonial violence. Surrounding the outer edge of the wheel are the words, “resilience,” “resistance,” and “self-determination.” Here are the examples of colonial violence:

• Segregation policies. Examples: Indigenous people not legally defined as a “person” until 1951, restriction of movement, separate schools and health care.
• Land theft. Examples: Land taken without consent, removed from land and forced onto reserves, local and international treaties (UNDRIP) ignored or broken.
• Medical experimentation. Examples: Indigenous women sterilized without consent, introduction of smallpox on blankets, experimentation on Indigenous children for food/starvation research.
• Cultural genocide. Examples: The Potlatch Ban, ban of all ceremonial gatherings and practices, loss of language and traditional teachings, sexist policies (Bill C-31).
• Assimilation policies. Examples: Residential schools, the 60’s Scoop, rape of Indigenous women and children in residential schools and other institutions.
• Forced economic dependence. Examples: restricted access to hunting grounds, loss of habitat for food sources, inability to negotiate “Nation-to-Nation” as legally “wards of the state,” treaty rights not honoured.

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Asking Questions to Promote Critical Thinking

Using questions is a simple way to deepen discussion and to promote critical thinking. We all make assumptions in order to arrive at opinions of how things are, what is important, and how things “should be.” Drawing out learner’s thoughts through the use of critical questions can help you to understand how to connect key concepts to learners’ personal experiences.

Key questions to encourage critical thinking could include:

• “Could you say a little more about that?”
• “Can you take us through your thinking on that?”
• “Where did you learn that?”
• “When did you first think that?”
• “When did you start thinking about that differently? What happened to change your mind?”

You also can ask questions to help reframe an issue. For example:

• Why do we teach people how to avoid sexual assault rather than teach people how not to sexually assault others?
• Why do you think that sexual violence is usually seen as a women’s issue? What responsibility do you think men might have in stopping sexual violence? How are people of all genders impacted?

Responding to Common Myths about Sexual Violence

There are many stereotypes, myths, and beliefs about sexual violence that do not reflect what research evidence tells us about sexual violence. There are many different approaches to responding to common myths during a discussion, including sharing statistics or research, asking a reflective question, clarifying definitions and concepts, or sharing an anecdote or experiential perspective. Below are some suggestions on how to respond to common myths about sexual violence (Sexual Violence and Prevention Response Office, 2020).

Adapted from: Sexual Violence and Prevention Response Office. (2020). Bystander Intervention (Facilitation notes). Thompson River University. Used with permission.

Transitions and Difficult Conversations

While facilitating, you are likely to encounter challenging moments when you might not be sure how to respond, when you strongly disagree with the perspective of the learner, or when the conversation has shifted in a direction that makes you concerned for the comfort and safety of other learners.

Below are some potential responses for handling difficult moments (Sexual Violence and Prevention Response Office, 2020):

• “Interesting. I’m not sure how to respond to that. Let me think on that for a minute and I’ll bring us back to that”
• “I’m not comfortable with where this conversation is going. I’d like to bring us back to some of the activities/questions we had planned.”
• “I’m just getting conscious of time here. Let’s move on for now.”
• “How do you think that comment might land for a survivor? I’m reminded of the commitments we all made when we came to the workshop…”
• “Tell me more about that.”
• “Where did you learn that/where does that thinking come from? Does anyone benefit from that?”
• “It’s okay for us to agree to disagree. Let’s move on for now.”

Self-care and community care are about looking after yourself and those around you. Facilitating learning about sexual violence can range from satisfying and rewarding to challenging and overwhelming. It is important to make sure that you are able to take the time to take care of yourself and that you are willing to reach out to co-workers, friends and family, or professional supports, if needed.

Ideally, you will be in a situation where you are delivering training with a co-facilitator. Not only is this helpful if a learner needs support during a session, it also helps to have someone with whom to share the joys and challenges of facilitation. After a session, plan for time afterwards to check in with each other about your experiences and any successes or challenges in facilitating. This allows for time to reflect on issues related to participation, inclusion, and safety; to consider any feedback that you received from learners; and, to discuss any facilitation successes and challenges. If you are facilitating alone, you might use the time after a session to reflect or use a journal to make notes as a way of processing the experience.

A bystander is someone who is a witness to an event or situation. Active bystander intervention training aims to provide all member of a campus community with the skills to recognize and respond to sexual violence. Active bystander intervention training views sexual violence as a societal problem in which everyone can play a role in preventing. It aims to help change social norms (e.g., victim blaming) and encourage people to be both proactive and reactive to situations in which sexual violence may occur.

This training is grounded in a socio-ecological model (below) which allows learners to consider how actions and interaction at multiple levels can both perpetuate violence and be places for intervention. Research suggests that the connection to community belonging shows promise in facilitating bystander behaviour (Baynard et al., 2009; Bennett et al., 2014; Casey & Lindhorst, 2009; Levine et al., 2020; McMahon et al., 2019).

This training takes learners through the 5-step model of bystander intervention (Baynard et al., 2009; Bennett et al., 2014). Following promising practices outlined by Baynard et al. (2009, p. 450), this training intentionally wove the following components throughout:

• Including information to increase knowledge and decrease about when and where sexual violence occurs
• Directly asking all members of the campus community to play a role in ending sexual violence
• Provide learners with the opportunity to develop and practice a range of skills in order to feel more confident in being an active bystander; and
• Help learners consider their own physical and emotional safety when considering options for intervening so that the benefits of safely intervening outweigh the barriers.

Image descriptions

Social-Ecological Model and Active Bystander Intervention image description.

A diagram with four semi-circles on top of each other to show the different levels where sexual violence can be prevented. They are as follows:

• Individual. This can include attending bystander intervention training, a student writing a paper on dating violence, and educating oneself on sexual violence support services on Campus.
• Interpersonal. This can include mentoring new students, friends checking in on a concerning relationship, parents educating children on the subject, and talking to colleagues about doing more.
• University. This can include the creation and implementation of anti-violence policies, having sexual violence support resources readily available, and collaboration between departments and sponsoring awareness initiatives.
• Surrounding community. This can include community education programs, local businesses donating to prevention initiatives, bystander training for workings in the community such as bartenders, and the existence of anti-violence legislation.

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The 5-Step Model of Bystander Intervention image description.

1. Noticing. Bystanders first must notice the incident that is taking place.
2. Interpreting. Interpret the situation as harmful/emergency. decide if you have a responsibility to act.
3. Assuming responsibility. Decide how you will intervene and if you need to get others involved.
4. Have the skills to intervene. Learn the skills and strategies to intervene. Brainstorm situations before they happen and practice.
5. Intervene. When possible, ask for consent before you intervene.

End of chapter.

This training can be delivered both in-person and remote (online) formats. Details on how to adapt the training for different formats can be found in the facilitator notes for the activities. In most instances, delivering this training in person is preferable. In-person delivery usually provides a greater opportunity for connection and relationship building between facilitator and learners, greater engagement between all learners, and more opportunities for facilitators to check for comprehension. Advantages for remote delivery include convenience, ability to reach students off- campus or prior to arriving on campus and the ability to record trainings. While this training is designed to be delivered synchronously, it can be adapted by individual institutions to be asynchronous.

An ideal institutional practice would see all students, faculty, administration (including leadership) and staff complete this workshop early in the school year, perhaps within a suite of trainings (i.e., other training on preventing and responding to sexual violence). Regular updates of sexual violence trainings (e.g., yearly) is also a “wise practice.”

Throughout the training, there are opportunities to adapt the training for different audiences by using different examples and scenarios. There are also brief activity slides throughout the presentation to assess learners’ knowledge and comfort level with the materials. This can help you decide which activities to spend more time on and when there might be opportunities to deepen the discussion and practice more advanced skills.

There are multiple opportunities to connect content found in this workshop to other training on sexual violence. For example, conversations about rape culture and myths about sexual violence in training on responding to disclosures can be linked to bystander intervention skills and how learners would respond to these situations. This training can also be included as part of the curriculum for various programs, a professional development opportunity for faculty and staff, or an extra-curricular credit offering.

Timing for 90-Minute Session

Length/Peer Delivery

The intended 90 minute length aligns with other post-secondary based bystander programming and it is appropriate to be delivered via peers when they have been adequately trained (Baynard et al., 2009; Mujal et al., 2019). While this workshop is informed by best available evidence, it is important to recognize that the published research does not necessarily include or represent all the diversity we find on our campuses (Evans et al., 2019; Hoxmeier et al., 2020; McMahon et al., 2020). As such, we invite and encourage you to thoughtfully tailor the message framing, scenarios, and structure to meet the needs of your audience.

The 4Ds Model

This training uses the 4Ds Model of Active Bystander Intervention. There are many versions and slight adaptations to this model available online, in purchasable programs and in the academic literature. If there is an aspect of the model that seems unclear or does not appear to fit into your context, you are encouraged to explore online resources that might work better. You may also want to explore various resources prior to delivering the training to deepen your own knowledge and understanding.

Examples of resources on the 4D Model:

• McMahon, S., Lowe Hoffman, M., McMahon, S. M., Zucker, S., & Koenick, R. A. (2013). What would you do? strategies for bystander intervention to prevent sexual violence by college students. Journal of College and Character, 14(2), 141-152. doi:10.1515/jcc-2013-0019
• Hollaback!’s 5Ds of Bystander Intervention Training. In 2012, Hollaback! partnered with the bystander program Green Dot (who pioneered the Three D’s of bystander intervention) to develop tools to help people intervene when they see harassment happen. In 2015, they expanded 3Ds to 4Ds  to include “delay.” In 2017, they the 4Ds to 5Ds by including “document.”
• “The Four Ds of Bystander Intervention: How To Make The World A Better Place”. (online magazine article, Abbey Fox, 2013)

Intervening with online/digital violence

The need to intervene during instances of online/digital violence is increasingly common. While violence and intervening online could be a separate training on its own, it may come up in this training as well. If you have additional time you may want to explore this area with learners. The resources below may be helpful tools for expanding this training to address these issues.

• Gender Equity Victoria in Australia has developed videos and a toolkit specific to addressing online harassment.
• Pen America has developed an Online Harassment Field Guide, drawing specifically from the experiences and input from communities who are targeted most often.

Below are some considerations for specific groups of learners.

Engaging Men

Research has consistently indicated that men participating in bystander intervention training may benefit from additional support and/or alternative message framing (Katz 2018; Leone & Parrott, 2018; Reynolds-Tylus, et al., 2020). Because the topic of sexual violence can sometimes feel patronizing or identify only men as harm-doers, men can become reactant and disengage with the training. Suggestions to mitigate this include opening up and inviting discussion rather than relying solely on a lecture style, recognizing the diversity of perpetrators and victims, addressing larger social context and norms that allow people to choose violence, and encouraging the idea that everyone has a role to play in preventing violence. Facilitators with time and capacity could develop further tailored programming in this area to address the needs of learners. Engaging male allies in this work as presenters, co-facilitators and peer mentors would be valuable.

International Students

International students may be at significant increased risk of being targeted for sexual violence, due to multiple barriers they face including lower levels of English language fluency, a lack of understanding of criminal law in Canada, cultural views of violence, isolation, discrimination, racism, and a need to adjust to local culture and limited local support systems (Forbes-Mewett, McCulloch 2015).  Research suggests that international students are reluctant to report sexual violence because of shame, guilt and embarrassment. Cultural norms may also hinder their ability to identify behaviors of others that may develop into situations of risk. Other factors include fear of not being believed, concerns about confidentiality and fear of retaliation by the offender. The majority of sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows and could include a friend, co-worker, person in authority, spouse or someone in their trusted peer group. International students face a number of transitional challenges related to adapting to the host culture leading them to turn to each other for support. Most often they form their own social network composed of other international students or former international students who share the same language and culture. Not only is there increased vulnerability for sexual violence from the larger community, international students may face sexual violence from other international students within their peer circle.

Bystander intervention will be better understood by inviting international students to safely discuss their fears, cultural expectations, unfamiliar norms, values and beliefs of the host student population and to identify concerns they may have about their safety and wellbeing.  Information about the law, consent and resources should help to reduce anxiety and increase confidence to reach out for help and access culturally and linguistically pertinent resources. All students can play a role in being an active bystander and intervening to stop an incident.

People who are LGBTQ2IA+

People in the LGBTQ2IA+ community are disproportionately targeted by perpetrators of sexual violence. Because of the lasting societal prevalence of homophobia, transphobia and queerphobia, they may be isolated from supportive networks of families and friends. Experiences with medical professionals and the criminal justice system may not offer culturally competent support or a sense of safety for queer victims of sexual violence. Likewise, victims of queer sexual violence may be reluctant to seek support or report the harm done to them (e.g., a straight, cisgender man may feel shame about being targeted by another man and choose not to seek support). Care must be taken to understand and acknowledge the intersecting oppressions faced by LGBTQ2IA+ folks of colour and those who are disabled and Indigenous. If at all possible, offer community and campus resources for queer victims of sexual violence that are culturally relevant (i.e. resources for Two Spirit people, queers of colour, disabled queers, religious queers, etc.).

This section complements the facilitator notes included in the slide deck. It provides suggestions on alternative ways of facilitating activities and how to “go deeper” into topics depending on time available, audience interest, and goals for the training.

Opening (Slides 2-8)

Land Acknowledgement: Adapt your institution’s land acknowledgement. Territorial acknowledgements are designed as the very first step to reconciliation. See Section 1 for additional information about creating a land acknowledgement for this training.

Optional Introductory Ice Breaker: You may choose to include an ice breaker activity at the beginning of your training to provide learners with an opportunity to get to know each other. Below is an example of an activity that can be used for both in-person and online trainings.

Give learners a moment to examine this photo (or another similar photo) and then ask them:

• What’s going on here?
• If you saw this happening, would you act?
• What factors would you consider before deciding to act or not?

Explore the different things people pick up on in the image, different perspectives on what’s happening, and how they might respond in the moment. Connect back to being a bystander in situations involving sexual violence. This activity is useful for “lightening the mood” or if there’s a lot of discomfort around the topic.

Community agreement

Help create a safe and respectful space through the use of a community agreement. See Section 2: Creating Space for more information about the use of community agreements.

Self care

Slide 4 describes an activity that you can use to help learners identify strategies for taking care of themselves during and after the training. You can use the Wellness Wheel to discuss different types of wellness and different approaches to self-care. You can also expand this part of the training by providing learners with the opportunity to more deeply explore wellness and self-care by using the Wellness Wheel handout below.

The Wellness Wheel was developed by Jewell Gillies, Musgamgw Dzawada’enux (they/them/theirs), and aligns with Indigenous traditional practices that view wellness holistically. You can download a handout version to share with learners here: BCcampus Wellness Wheel Worksheet [PDF].

During this discussion, you should make sure that learners know what supports are available on campus and in community, and that you will be available after the workshop to debrief with anyone who might need additional support. Additionally, let learners know that they can private message a specific facilitator (email).

You can also deepen this discussion of self-care by talking about individual self-care versus community care and institutional support and resources. Self-care can often have an overly individual focus on it as people are encouraged to take care of themselves. Similar to how we encourage learners to think beyond the individual to systems and structures when we talk about preventing sexual violence, we need to expand our understanding of self-care and wellness. (This concept is relevant for learners, but it is also important for facilitators to consider for themselves. This is not easy or uncharged work to do, and it is both important and encouraged to acknowledge what kind of needs you may have to stay well in the work). Resources that may be helpful to review to support this type of discussion include:

• The Unspoken Complexity of “Self-Care”.
• The Zone of Fabulousness.
• Self-Care isn’t enough. We need community care to thrive.

Video: Maya’xala and Namwayut

This short video with Jewell Gillies is an opportunity to ground discussions about bystander interventions in the context of community relationships and Indigenous ways of knowing. Following the video, you can highlight the following points:

• Approaching bystander intervention from the basis of mutual respect and community is important;
• When we see people causing harm, we can situate our intervention in the assumption that they care about being respectful members of the community.
• By grounding our responses in these ideas, we are working to decolonize the way we build communities and respond to harm.

Section 1: Understanding Sexual Violence (slides 8-18)

Activity: Definitions

Learning Objective(s) Addressed: Define sexual violence

Intent: to ensure learners understand terms used by their institutions they attend/work at.

Instructions

Explain the importance of knowing what the terms mean, especially as language is ever changing and the meanings can vary depending on things like culture or setting (i.e., slightly different between different universities or from province to province). Because of the fluidity of language, it is important to define terms folks say they understand as well as the terms that they are unsure about. You are encouraged to make this piece interactive. Depending on time, you could choose one of the following options for a few terms, then distribute a full definitions page and let learners know it is their responsibility to be aware of what the terms mean at your institution.

• Option 1: Put your institutional definitions into an interactive game, like Kahoot!
• Option 2: Create a matching worksheet or game.
• Option 3: Choose a term and have learners brainstorm what they think it means. Compare to your institution’s definition(s).

Notes and considerations

• Often this section leads people to realize that they have experienced things that are now being defined as violence. Facilitators should know how to receive disclosures and have working knowledge of supports for victim/survivors.
• Similarly, learners may realize from this section that they have done things to or with others that would be identified as violent. See Section 2: Trauma Awareness for suggestions on supporting learners before and after a session.
  • When possible, facilitators can share their experiences of how they felt when they learned these things and if they realized any of their previous actions or attitudes were harmful – recognizing that everyone learns and it’s possible to move through the discomfort of it all.
• At the very least, ensure all learners have a copy of a definitions page for their reference. It can be easy to get lost in the words facilitators are comfortable using, so this is an important resource for learners.
• If you find other effective, interactive strategies for definitions, share them with the rest of the community!

Activity: What causes sexual violence

Learning Objective(s) Addressed: Recognize the complex roots of sexual violence and how social influences normalize violence.

Intent: to gauge and gather learners’ ideas about sexual violence, to promote deeper reflection about why violence happens, to challenge myths that come up.

Instructions

Recognize that learners are coming from diverse backgrounds and histories with different experiences and may have lots of ideas and knowledge about this already.

Option 1: Allow learners 30 seconds or so to silently reflect on “What causes sexual violence” and write down an idea or two.

Collect responses in one of these ways:

• In person or online: Use an audience interaction platform like Slido or Mentimeter to pose the question and collect anonymous answers (e.g. Word cloud function).
• In person: whole group discussion with responses recorded on a board or chart paper
• Online: Invite verbal responses and contributions in the chat box. Record responses by typing into the slide, if possible.

Option 2: create a poll in Kahoot or Slido with preloaded answers such as:

Sexual violence happens because:

• People drink too much.
• False beliefs about gender relations.
• People dress in provocative clothing.
• Women walk alone late at night.
• A desire to assert power and control over someone.

Debrief answers received and use as transition to Continuum of Violence slide.

Notes and considerations

• Be prepared that this activity can bring up myths about sexual violence. It’s important to think about your responses to common sentiments about false reporting, victim/survivor behaviour, “bad apples,” impacts of substance use, perpetrators just not knowing what they were doing, violence often happening between strangers, etc.
  • If something comes up that sounds like a rape myth or that it may cause harm but you’re unsure how to respond, you can say something like “I’m hesitant to dig into that in this space, but I’d be happy to discuss it with you further offline (or direct you to someone who may know more about that than I do)” or refer back to the group guidelines about assuming there are survivors in the room.
  • Check out the table in Section 2: Responding to Common Myths about Sexual Violence for more suggestions on how to facilitate these discussions.
• Taking good notes during this activity is a great way to get new ideas and framings for future training or educational materials.

Activity: Roots of violence

Learning Objective(s) Addressed: Recognize the complex roots of sexual violence and how social influences normalize violence.

Intent: to practice recognizing how everyday interactions and social messaging can perpetuate rape culture.

Instructions

• Facilitators should choose an image that reflects some of the key messages described below. Social media memes, music videos, romantic comedies or reality TV shows often have great examples.
• Divide students into small groups or ask them to discuss with others around them.
  • Online delivery: invite whole group discussion using mics or chat boxes, or if you have some extra time, use breakout rooms for small groups.
• Ask students to reflect on the images and engage with the following questions:
  • What messages does this image send about gender and socializing?
  • What does it say about “nice” people?
• Give students 2 minutes to discuss or ask them to signal when they’ve completed their discussion. Ask each group to report back on their discussion.
• Key messages:
  • Certain genders have rules about when and how they can socialize. Breaking the rules of socializing may be risky/dangerous which may mean rule breakers are to blame for anything bad that happens. This reinforces the binary of “good” people and “bad” people (nice girls/bad girls).
  • Rape culture is also tied to homophobia, transphobia, and queerphobia. Rape and sexual violence is often joked about as a way to “cure” or punish queers. Also, there remains a false discourse that paints some members of the LGBTQ2SIA+ community (e.g. transgender, gay, lesbian, and bisexual) as threats to (sexual) safety or as sexual deviants.
  • Final debrief note: It’s important to remember that rape culture is built and sustained by the small acts that are regularly enacted, permitted and add up over time. No one person is responsible for rape culture, and just because we engage in one act does not mean we are responsible for the rape of another person. What’s important is to start noticing these kinds of things, because they can all be places where we build stronger, more respectful communities free of violence.

Notes and considerations

• If facilitators have the capacity, it may be worthwhile to monitor the chatrooms to ensure that conversations are flowing well and respectfully.
• This activity can be adapted to use lots of different images, songs or clips from TV/movies/news. Feel free to switch out the images if there is something that feels more topical or relevant to the group you’re presenting with.

Section 2: Active Bystander Intervention (slides 20-27)

Activity: Think of a time when someone stood up for you

Learning Objective(s) Addressed: Develop skills to intervene and be an active bystander if you see sexual violence happening

Intent: to reflect on personal experience of situations where bystander intervention is possible; to start identifying positive and negative impacts or attributes bystanders can have; to emphasize the importance of thinking about safety and the victim/survivor’s perspective before jumping into action.

Instructions

• Allow learners 1 minute or so to think quietly. If in person, ask learners to turn to those closest to them to debrief their responses to the question for 2 minutes. If online, skip this part.
• Ask the larger group: What did the bystander do well? What could they have done differently?
  • Make notes on learners’ responses throughout the exercise. This will start to capture qualities of a “good” or “bad” bystander and some things to think about before intervening.
• Main debrief note after discussion: It’s not always easy or clear to know if or how we should intervene, but considering how your actions may make the victim/survivor feel is an important step.
  • It can also be helpful to think about a pros and cons to intervening. For example, Con: someone tells you to F off and you’re embarrassed for a minute, Pro: you prevent violence /support change culture etc. Oftentimes, the pros can outweigh the cons when considering to intervene.

Activity: Identifying barriers to intervening

Learning Objective(s) Addressed: Develop skills to intervene and be an active bystander if you see sexual violence happening.

Intent: To acknowledge that there are good reasons (i.e., risk of other forms of discrimination) why people do not intervene sometimes; to highlight that an intervention does not have to be “perfect” to be useful or helpful.

Instructions

• If sticking to the 90 minute workshop: Discuss this as a popcorn style group brainstorm for 3 minutes or so
• If you have additional time:
  • Break learners up into small groups (using chat rooms for virtual delivery).
  • Allow them 5 minutes to discuss the topic. Ask each group to take notes on their responses so that they can be shared back.
  • As learners report back to the larger group, facilitators should note where there are commonalities in responses.
• Moving to the next slide, note that some or many of these may have already been mentioned, but some we often hear and are supported in the academic literature include:
  • fear about personal safety – especially if part of another already marginalized identity groups
  • fear about doing it wrong or making it worse
  • not knowing what to say/do
  • uncertainty about whether or not it’s “your place”
  • worry that other consequences will come because of the context (e.g. drug use happening, what will happen if RCMP come?)
  • social ramifications/consequences: being seen as too sensitive, Debbie Downer, SJW (a Social Justice Warrior); being isolated from a peer group or community that provides significant support; being seens as responsible for causing a rift in a tight knit group/community/team
• Final debrief note: acknowledge that many people share the same worries or fears about responding to a situation, and acknowledge that responses do not have to be perfect to be useful (Reynolds, 2013).

Section 3: The 4Ds Model

1. (Be) Direct: Name what is happening or confront the harasser.
   • It can be risky, so be thoughtful and use caution. The harasser may redirect their abuse toward you and escalate the situation.
   • Ask yourself: Are you and the person being harassed physically safe? Does it seem unlikely that the situation will escalate? Can you tell if the person being harassed wants someone to speak up?
   • Examples of direct statements: “That’s inappropriate, disrespectful, not okay, etc.” “Leave them alone.”“That’s homophobic, racist, etc.”
   • Keep it short and succinct.
   • Don’t engage in dialogue, debate, or an argument – this is how situations can escalate.
   • If the harasser responds, try your best to stay focused on assisting the person who was targeted instead of engaging with the harasser.
2. Distract: Derail the incident by interrupting it.
   • Ignore the harasser and engage directly with the person who is being targeted.
   • Don’t talk about or refer to the harassment. Instead, talk about something completely unrelated.
   • Example strategies: Pretend to be lost. Ask for the time. Pretend you know the person being harassed. Talk about something to take attention off of the harassed person. Accidentally-on-purpose spill your coffee or make a commotion.
3. Delegate: Ask for assistance, a resource or help from a third party.
   • Set the expectation to speak up and step in. Talking openly and responding directly to inappropriate behaviors will encourage others to respond. It shows you recognize the comment or behavior is unacceptable and shows others that it will not be tolerated.
   • Example Statements: Are you hearing what I am hearing?I can’t be the only one who thinks this is not OK.
   • Find the store supervisor, bus driver, bar staff, faculty member, security officer or a transit employee and ask them to intervene.
   • Work together. Speak to someone near you who notices what’s happening and might be in a better position to intervene.
   • Call 911 to request help. Before contacting 911, try to check in with the person being targeted to make sure they want you to do this. Some people may not be comfortable with the intervention of law enforcement. It may not always be possible to check in first, so use your best judgement. Some people may not be comfortable with the intervention of law enforcement.
4. Delay: Check in with the person who was harassed after the fact.
   • Even if you can’t act in the moment, you can make a difference for the person who has been harassed afterward.
   • Many types of harassment happen in passing or very quickly, in which case you can wait until the situation is over and speak to the person who was targeted then. For example, you can:
     • Ask them if they’re okay
     • Tell them you’re sorry that happened to them.
     • Let them know that what has happened to them isn’t their fault
     • Affirm that they didn’t do anything wrong.
     • Ask them if there’s any way you can support them.
     • Offer to accompany them to their destination or sit with them for a bit.
     • Offer to share resources or help them make a report if they want to.
     • If you’ve documented the incident, ask them if they want you to send it to them.
     • Respect their answer, whatever it is.

Section 4: Practice Scenarios (Slides 33 -36)

Learning Outcome(s) Addressed: Developing skills to intervene and be an active bystander if you see sexual violence happening.

Intent: to practice specific intervention skills and strategies using real life circumstances.

Instructions

5 minute group work, 10 minute debrief.

• Option 1: divide learners into small groups (breakout rooms for virtual work) and have each group work on a different scenario;
• Option 2: Go through multiple situations as a larger group.
• Invite learners to read the scenario and consider:
  • Which of the 4D’s would you use to intervene?
  • What would stop you from saying or doing something?
  • Would you follow-up after the situation? If so, how?
• If learners were divided into small groups, return for a whole group debrief. Encourage learners to identify which “D” their strategy falls under and any other big spots of discussion from their group.
• Online delivery tip: invite learners to contribute via chat boxes.

Notes and considerations

• It can be helpful to tailor your scenario to the program or audience that you’re working with to ensure that your examples resonate with learners.
  • See McMahon& Banyard (2012), Hayes (2019), The University of Victoria’s bystander workbook, or the Accountability and Repairing Relationships Training and Facilitator Guide for additional ideas and case study examples.
• Depending on timing, you may be able to use more than one scenario.
• This could be another place where rape myths pop up. Refer to Section 2: Responding to Common Myths for potential responses to them.

Scenarios

Scenario 1: Waiting for the bus

You are waiting for the bus on campus after a long day with a group of people you are friendly with. You notice a student who is waiting for the same bus being approached by someone they seem to know and are being flirtatious with. Something in their conversation and body language changes as the bus pulls up. The student looks upset and rushes onto the bus, you hear them say firmly, “I said I am not interested!” The person they were flirting with looks confused and follows them onto the bus.

Scenario 2: Inappropriate “joke” between coworkers

Kai has just been hired in your department as the new administrative assistant. Your co-worker Shay is responsible for training all new staff. Shay is friendly and generally very funny. A few weeks after Kai starts, you notice Shay hanging out at Kai’s desk. As you get closer, you can hear Shay talking about how nice Kai’s eyes are. Shay laughs, “Oops, you better not tell HR about that!” Kai doesn’t laugh or say anything in response.

Later that day you hear Shay asking for help with a jammed photocopier. As Kai bends over to help, you see Shay glancing at Kai’s bum. With a laugh Shay says, “I guess your eyes aren’t the only nice thing about you.”

Scenario 3: Socializing after an exam

After an exam, you and some classmates go out to celebrate. After a few drinks, one of them starts talking about a date he went on the weekend before. Ash talks loudly about how he could tell immediately that his date was going to have sex with him that night. Some classmates remain silent, pretending to be distracted by their phones or the menu. A few classmates chime in about their own sexual encounters on first dates, joking about how to tell by someone’s dating profile picture how likely they are to be open to having sex or hooking up. Ash asks a quiet classmate, “Would you have sex on the first date?” When the quiet classmate responds, “Not with you!” Ash suggests that he would just have to get the classmate drunk first to loosen them up.

Debriefing notes/Follow-up questions

Scenario 1: Waiting for the bus

Though you may not have heard what was said between the two flirtatious people in this scenario, you may guess that something is not quite right from context clues like changes in body language and tone. You may not be completely sure that you have witnessed sexual violence or harassment, but it’s better to be an active bystander than to be a passive one — just in case.

Sometimes being in a group of people we feel safe with changes the way we intervene when we witness sexual violence or harassment. We might be more or less likely to get involved based on our relationship within the group. For example, the bystander effect can kick in here if no one else in your group responds to help the student. You might second-guess your instincts to intervene because you aren’t sure that what you are witnessing is, indeed, some form of violence or harassment. You might wait for someone else in your friend group to make the first move if you assume they are better suited to intervening (maybe they are bigger, stronger, or feistier than you). On the other hand, you may feel safer to use one of the 4 D’s if you are surrounded by safe people who you think may support you in your efforts to intervene. There can be strength in numbers in this scenario. For example, you and your friend group could, if you wanted to, form a protective shield between the student and the person they were flirting with once you all get on the bus. Which of the 4 D’s would that be?

Scenario 2: Inappropriate “joke” between coworkers

Responding to sexual violence in the workplace can be tricky. There are often many dynamics at play that will inform your decisions about what to do and how to do it. Though it might be clear to some that Kai needs support and that Shay needs to correct their behaviour, how we go about being an active bystander may depend on how we fit in the workplace hierarchy. For example, this scenario shows a power imbalance between Kai and Shay. Kai is new to the team, while Shay has been a member of the team for a longer. Shay may feel more secure at work than Kai; they have had a longer time to prove themselves and their competency as well as make relationships and connections within the team. Kai may still be on probation and have less job security. Kai may be unsure of the supports available, the expectations of how to react to Shay’s inappropriate jokes, how to report harassment or even who to report it to.

Your decision to be an active bystander may also be linked to how you fit in the workplace hierarchy. If Shay is your supervisor or has a friendship outside of work with your supervisor, you might be worried about things like retaliation or being fired. The strategies you choose in addressing the problematic behaviour towards Kai might be different if you and Shay are peers or if Shay reports to you. How would you change your strategy (i.e. which of the 4D’s you use) if there was an imbalance of power between you and Shay?

Scenario 3: Socializing after an exam

In this scenario, alcohol may play a big role. Ash and others are say sexually inappropriate and problematic things about the people they have sex with. This talk makes others uncomfortable, and finally one quiet person is singled out and victimized. Ash’s joke about getting your your quiet classmate drunk so that they will have sex with him shows that he equates drunkenness with consent. Consent can’t be given if someone is incapacitated by alcohol.

There are many layers to this scenario and many things to consider when you are being an active bystander. What would you consider before using the 4 D’s to create a safe environment for your quiet classmate?

Closing (Slides 37-39)

Recognize that everyone has a role in creating healthy and safe campus communities. We’d like to know what piece of learning today has been most useful to you as you move forward to create safer communities. Maybe it’s a strategy, or a term or a statement. Let’s take one minutes to reflect and then enter your response into Slido (and/or invite active feedback, whichever seems more likely to encourage engagement).

Optional closing activity: if you have a bit more time: Rock Stick Leaf Debrief.

Invite learners to take note of 3 pieces from today → something that “rocked their world”, something that’s going to stick with them, and a message they’d like to leave with peers. Invite them to share back with the larger group if they are comfortable.

Thank learners for their participation.

Acknowledgements

Reminder of facilitator availability and available resources. Re-iterate that they can reach out to the facilitators after the session for support.

When delivering training on sexual violence, you will want to consider different mechanisms for evaluating both short- and long-term outcomes. We encourage you to collaborate with community frontline workers and organizations and researchers within your institution to develop a comprehensive evaluation strategy to determine the overall effectiveness of various forms of training on preventing and responding to sexual violence at your institution as well as other indicators such as awareness of your institution’s sexual violence and misconduct policy, changes in attitudes and values related to sexual violence, and the effectiveness of institutional response to sexual violence (including investigations, accommodations, and collaboration with different stakeholders and on- and off-campus organizations).

A consistent approach to measuring similar workshops will allow you to compare them over time and show improvement or the need for adapting the workshop to be more successful for the intended audience. The pre/post test is a common form of evaluating training programs. Identical tests are used at the beginning and end of the training and the results are compared to examine changes in knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Pre-tests can be given at the time of registration for a workshop or at the beginning of a session. Post-test can be given at the end of the session or shortly after the date of the last session. Additional tests can be given at set time after the workshop to assess long-term impact, e.g., 3 months, 6 months, 1 year. Post-tests can also be used throughout longer trainings, e.g., at the end of a morning session and again at the end of an afternoon session.

Frequently, pre/post-test questions will be a mix of quantitative and qualitative questions. Quantitative questions are usually answered by many respondents and have definitive answers. They often use Likert scales, where respondents indicate how much they agree or disagree with a statement by choosing from a set of fixed choices on a linear scale (e.g., strongly agree, agree, neither agree or disagree, disagree, strongly disagree). Qualitative questions can be used to understand these statements and to gather information not captured by the quantitative questions. All the questions should link to the learning objectives and outcomes for the training.

Below are examples of pre/post-test questions that can be used as part of your evaluation for this training.

Pre-Test

1. How well do you understand the term “Sexual Violence”
   

   1 No understanding

   2

   3 Somewhat understand

   4

   5 Clearly understand

2. How well do you understand the factors that contribute to sexual violence happening?
   

   1 No understanding

   2

   3 Somewhat understand

   4

   5 Clearly understand

3. Can you think of reasons why people may not intervene?
   

   1 Cannot think of any

   2

   3 Can think of a few

   4

   5 Can think of many

4. Can you think of different ways to intervene when violence is happening?
   

   1 Cannot think of any

   2

   3 Can think of a few

   4

   5 Can think of many

5. Do you think you would intervene if you saw someone experiencing verbal sexual violence?
   

   1 Would not intervene

   2

   3 Might intervene

   4

   5 Would definitely intervene

6. Do you think you would intervene if you saw someone experiencing physical violence?
   

   1 Would not intervene

   2

   3 Might intervene

   4

   5 Would definitely intervene

7. Do you think you have a role to play in stopping sexual violence?
   

   1 No, not at all

   2

   3 Maybe a small role

   4

   5 Yes, a large role

Post-Test

1. How well do you understand the term “Sexual Violence”?
   

   1 No understanding

   2

   3 Somewhat understand

   4

   5 Clearly understand

2. Has your understanding of the term “Sexual Violence” changed? YES or NO
   1. If YES, how?
3. How well do you understand the factors that contribute to sexual violence happening?
   

   1 No understanding

   2

   3 Somewhat understand

   4

   5 Clearly understand

4. Has your understanding of the factors that contribute to sexual violence changed? YES or NO
   1. If YES, how?
5. Can you think of reasons why people may not intervene?
   

   1 Cannot think of any

   2

   3 Can think of a few

   4

   5 Can think of many

   1. If you learned something new about this, what was it?
6. Can you think of different ways to intervene when violence is happening?
   

   1 Cannot think of any

   2

   3 Can think of a few

   4

   5 Can think of many

   1. If you learned something new about this, what was it?
7. Do you think you would intervene if you saw someone experiencing verbal sexual violence?
   

   1 Would not intervene

   2

   3 Might intervene

   4

   5 Would definitely intervene

8. Do you think you would intervene if you saw someone experiencing physical violence?
   

   1 Would not intervene

   2

   3 Might intervene

   4

   5 Would definitely intervene

9. Do you think you have a role to play in stopping sexual violence?
   

   1 No, not at all

   2

   3 Maybe a small role

   4

   5 Yes, a large role

   1. What do you think this could be?
10. What are one or two main pieces of knowledge or skills you’re taking away?
11. Was there anything missing from the training?
12. Is there anything you are still wondering about?

You may find these resources helpful to review for your own learning as a facilitator or to include in your trainings.

• 6 Ways to Engage with GBV Prevention Education Online + Resources. (blog post, June 2020)
• “Be More Than A Bystander” Campaign, Ending Violence Association of BC.
• Bringing in the Bystander (Online): UVic’s Bystander Intervention Training, Participant Workbook (2020).
• Decolonizing the Roots of Rape Culture: reflections on consent, sexual violence and university campuses. (podcast and paper) (Sarah Hunt, 2016)
• Online Bystander Intervention Project, Gender Equity Victoria. (Australia)
• Online Harassment Field Manual, PEN America.
• Plain Language Best Practices: Sexualized Violence Policies and Procedures: A Model for BC Post-secondary Institutions, West Coast Editorial Associates. (BCcampus)
• Reducing Assault On Campus: Technology and Bystander Intervention, Men Can Stop Rape.
• Responding to a Sexual Assault Disclosure: Practice Tips for Universities & Colleges, Ending Violence Association of BC. (2016)
• Understanding Rape Culture (infographic), Violence Against Women Learning Network, Western University.