To schedule any of the programs listed below, please call our Outreach Office at 724-776-5910.
Dating Violence
The dating violence program is designed to look at violence in intimate relationships. The program goes through the different types of violence that can occur in a relationship and then the students will discuss what the violence looks like in the relationship. Knowing what violence looks like in a relationship is important because when student or people in general think of violence they think of severe cases and easily overlook subtle behaviors that are early warning signs to violent relationships. The program then looks at the cycle of violence so students can understand how violence grows over time and can make it difficult to identify dating violence until it is severe.
Gender Violence
The gender violence program looks at masculinity and femininity and how those two terms are defined. How those two terms are defined guide our interactions with others around us. Those interactions may attempt to push others into stereotypical boxes. The students will discuss how we push people into stereotypical gender roles through bullying, violence and even sexual harassment. The students will also discuss how media and pop culture influence our definitions of gender roles. Finally, the students will discuss how these stereotypical gender roles may create unhealthy or uncomfortable dating relationships.
Social Self Defense
The Social Self Defense program is designed to address ways of keeping yourself safe in a variety of social situations. Part of keeping yourself safe is to understand the techniques that a potential attacker may use to manipulate and persuade you into trusting them. This program will discuss those techniques so they can be detected when being used. This can help potentially avoid a situation before it becomes dangerous. If the situation becomes physical, the facilitators will demonstrate a variety of easy to do attacks that can be used in an attempt to fend off an attacker. The attacks are based on social settings such as in the hallways or at a party and getting pinned to a wall, strangled, or grabbed in standing positions. All of the techniques and concepts can be transferred to our Rape Self Defense program.
STEPS to Healthy Relationships
Students will learn the STEPS to a healthy relationship which includes Self-definition (a sense of who you are), Trust (listening to the voice inside of you), Equality (maintaining a balance of power and control), Personal Boundaries (understand comfortable and uncomfortable behaviors) and Support (developing a support network of trusted individuals). These STEPS can be used for all forms of relationships that a student may encounter: friends and family, peers and adults or boyfriends and girlfriends. The STEPS will help students explore who they are, what they want from their relationships, and who to go to if they are having a problem. In the process, the students will look at issues of gender stereotypes and concepts of personal space. Finally, the students will create a resource to refer back to, to remind them of what they learned about themselves through the STEPS program.
Rape Self Defense
Many self-defense programs teach women how to defend themselves using techniques designed for men. This program is specifically for women to learn how to use their strongest weapons, their legs, against their perpetrators weakest targets, their knees, groin, stomach, throat, and face. The program also focuses on controlling the perpetrator’s hands and hips which have the potential of doing the most damage in a rape situation. The Rape Self Defense program will focus specifically on rape situations and escaping from those positions using techniques designed specifically for women.
