ANTIGONISH, N.S.- A group of Saint Frances Xavier University students are taking a proactive approach to dealing with sexual violence on their campus.
Bridget Houston, a third year student, and Brianna Boyle, a fourth year student, co-chair the campus’ Unsilence the Violence project.
The project, aimed at addressing and preventing violence originally emerged out of a larger project funded by Status of Women Canada called Preventing Violence Against Women. When funding ended in 2014, Houston and Boyle decided to keep the initiative alive at St. FX.
The St. FX ‘Unsilence the Violence’ group works at not only documenting gender-based violence, but also assessing the impact of the violence and raising awareness on their campus where sexual violence can be exacerbated by university culture, said Houston.
“It is really essential to creating a better community and safer environment,” she said, “Especially on university campuses where there is a hookup and binge drinking culture that can intensify the problem.”
They call their approach “bringing in the bystander,” which entails working with groups on campus such as the student union and community partners like the Antigonish Women’s Resource Centre, as well as students, to create an environment where there is community responsibility and everyone plays a role in the process of ending sexualized violence.
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“It is a good way to reach out to everyone on campus and communicate about sexual violence and what we can do as bystanders to better support those affected by sexual violence,” said Houston.
It is important to equip the individuals to be proactive bystanders in the community, said Boyle.
“We provide students with tools to intervene, as well as a greater understanding of sexualized violence and the lasting impact it has.”
St. FX Unsilence the Violence has participates in events within their city such as the Sisters in Spirit vigils that remember missing and murdered aboriginal women, as well as the Take Back the Night march in their town, a peaceful protest who’s goal is to demonstrate that everyone deserves to feel safe when they are out at night.
For their most recent project, Unsilence the Violence teamed up with twin sisters Marie and Meaghan Wright of Wright Productions, to make a video about taking a stand against violence.
The sisters said that being involved in a project like this one is important to them and their community.
“We need to be pro-social bystanders,” said Marie, “Violence is violence and at the end of the day it is not okay.”
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