The month of April gives attention to sexual assault awareness, and the Violence Awareness and Response Program, or VARP, helps students throughout the year. Interim Director of VARP, Shadow Rolan, knows women will turn out for the month, but men are urged to be a part of the campaign.

“We would like more men to come to our event because once they hear VARP or the Women’s Center is putting it on, that’s when it becomes gendered to them,” Rolan said. “No! We want male allies to come in, too. We want to start including men into the conversation, as well. We don’t want to talk to women about what women already know.”

What is the Violence Awareness and Response Program?

So what does VARP do? In its essentials, VARP brings 3 elements to all students: programming, education, and confidential advocacy.

“Students respond well when talking to students, and students also respond well when someone is giving them information about something,” Rolan said. “It’s like, ‘I can relate to you, I see myself in you.’”

First, programs on campus throughout the year offer inside looks into intimate partner violence, as well as domestic and sexual assault violence.

“We talk about healthy boundaries, healthy relationships- you name it,” Rolan said.

Second, for education, VARP offers two programs: Peace Practice and Bravehearts. Peace Practice allows peer educators to go to the classrooms and perform improv scenarios, such as the “good friend, bad friend” scenario.

“We let their peers essentially teach them about what a good friend is and what to do when a friend disclose that they have been domestically or sexually harmed,” Rolan said.

Bravehearts is a conversational circle aimed at addressing student-related issues, such as setting healthy boundaries in relationships.

“A big conversation that we had was that it was hard to set healthy boundaries with family members, so we talked about that,” Rolan said.

And last, confidential advocacy allows students to talk to an advocate who will guide students towards proper action.

“I’m the person to come talk to, because I don’t have to report to anybody- unless sexual assault happened on-campus,” Rolan said.

What’s the Give Back the Night event?

On April 13, the ‘Give Back the Night’ event will honor sexual assault awareness month by playing the film, “The Bystander Movement”, and incorporating male allies with primary prevention, encouraging consent and healthy relationships. The event is open for everybody, but VARP hopes for a larger male turn-out.

“I feel like ‘Give Back the Night’ is really for men to essentially give it back to women,” Rolan said. “For men to, essentially, let women be women in the world…I would say ‘Give Back the Night’ is gendered and geared toward the men, because ‘Take Back the Night’ is geared to women. Where we’re taking it back, we’re reclaiming, we’re re-owning it.”

According to Rolan, 1 in 5 women will be sexually assaulted during their college career. In the ‘Give Back the Night Event,’ Jackson Katz takes up a great portion of the film and speaks about how men can combat these statistics.

“He primarily focuses on men and what men can do to become great human beings, great allies for women,” Rolan said. “And then he also talks about the negative feedback that they get, the negative lash-back.”

Check out VARP and the Women’s Center in CSU 218 for more resources and guidance.

“Just don’t write us out,” Rolan said. “Give us a chance and come see for yourself what the Women’s Center is all about.”