This month the University is participating in the pilot project of Virginia's first campaign to address dating violence on college campuses.
The project, known as the Red Flag Campaign, was created by the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Alliance in association with college groups around the state, said Kate McCord, public awareness manager for the Alliance and co-coordinator of the campaign.
"We are a statewide coalition of individuals and agencies working to respond to and prevent sexual and domestic violence," McCord said. "U.Va. has been involved from the beginning of the campaign planning process as a member of the advisory committee."
The program centers on the distribution of six informative posters and a Web site, McCord said.
"The posters cover such things as emotional abuse, coercion, sexual assault and isolation," McCord said. "Along with the posters we have a Web site that acts as a resource for students and other campus personnel who are interested in gaining more information about dating violence and how to intervene for a friend."
According to McCord, the Alliance ran focus groups with students to identify student thoughts on dating violence as well as to compile information for the text of the poster.
"Most said they would want to intervene for a friend that is either perpetrating dating violence or being victimized in a relationship," she said. "They [said they] would need more information ... so we designed the posters around being very clear what the signs are."
Starting Oct. 6, the posters were hung throughout 10 participating Virginia colleges, explained McCord. Five hundred red flags were also distributed to five of the 10 pilot schools, as well as a pre-campaign survey, she said.
"The pilot includes a pre-campaign survey ... to test students' beliefs on dating violence and their reactions to the campaign material," she said."
The posters can be found around Grounds on academic department message boards, in the libraries and Student Health, and they are trying to reach out to the Greek community, said Claire Kaplan, director of Sexual and Domestic Violence Services at the Women's Center and member of the Campaign's advisory board.
"My goal with this campaign is to continue to raise awareness within the University, particularly with undergraduates," Kaplan said.
Most students don't realize that dating violence effects people their own age, Kaplan said.
"The truth is I work with students all the time that are being abused," she said.
The pilot survey process ends today, however, posters will continue to run "until we run out," Kaplan said.
The actual campaign will start August 2007 and will spread to 20 other Virginia colleges, McCord said.
"It is intended to reach particularly new students during orientation week," McCord said. "It is unknown how long it will run."
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