UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn Staters are being called to take a stand.
Stand for State’s Action Week will be rallying students behind the cause of bystander intervention from Sept. 12 to 18 and training as many as 400 students across 11 Penn State campuses on how to step in when others are in danger.
Launched in January, Stand for State offers tools built around the 3 D’s — direct, distract and delegate — for assisting others who may be in harms way.
Stand for State’s Action Week will include events at all campuses and is part of the first National Green Dot Action Day, an effort of “harnessing hope into action” on Sept. 18 by 50 schools nationwide that use Green Dot’s bystander intervention curriculum.
Stand for State has created a toolkit for faculty and staff interested in promoting bystander intervention. Email standforstate@psu.edu to obtain a digital kit that includes individual steps that can be taken during Action Week as well as materials such as PowerPoint presentations and videos that can be presented to groups.
Penn State’s Action Week will include a call to action led by President Eric Barron from 3 to 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12, at the Monumental Staircase in the HUB as well as a pledge to be an active bystander that can be signed by students, faculty and staff. Other activities include games, food and social media campaigns such as a scavenger hunt.
Green Dot’s program refers to threatening situations as “red dots.” When a bystander intervenes to defuse a situation or raise awareness about an issue, a “green dot” is created. Action Week’s goal is to generate as many green dots as possible across all campuses to show that Penn Staters are taking a stand to watch out for each other because everyone deserves to be safe. Stand for Stand aims to track green dots through social media, including with the distribution of slap-bracelets that will be passed along to a person they would do a green dot for. The bracelet’s journey can be tracked with the hashtag marked on the bracelet. There will also be a place on the Stand for State website for green dots to be logged anonymously.
The week will culminate on Sunday, Sept. 18, with workshops for students. Students who sign up will also be invited to a brunch and an address hosted by President Barron and Green Dot Executive Director Dorothy Edwards. (Anyone can attend the address, set for 11 a.m. to noon.)
To sign up, go http://standforstate.psu.edu/page-two/workshops/. During the three-hour workshops, students will learn:
- Warning signs of sexual and relationship violence
- How to safely and effectively interrupt and defuse potentially risky situations
- Consider values in regards to personal responsibility to intervene
- Everyday choices can contribute to creating a campus where safety for all is a priority, and everyone plays a role in watching out for each other
Since the launch, 150 students and 75 faculty and staff members have attended the extended bystander intervention workshop.
Stand for State is also seeking volunteers for various Action Week events. Volunteers can sign up here.
For more information, go to http://standforstate.psu.edu/.