UVic’s Sexualized Violence Policy Review – we want your feedback
Do you want to have your say in what sexualized violence response, prevention education and support services look like on campus? After 3 years of implementation the University of Victoria’s Sexualized Violence Prevention and Response Policy is undergoing its first major review. This week is the last week that feedback is being collected from the campus community in the following ways:
- Survey: this takes about 10 to 15 minutes to fill out https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/2BLW9X2
- Email: you can email directly (The email is monitored by the EQHR Executive Director and Chair of the Advisory Committee. All submissions will be anonymized and kept confidential.)
- Conversation Cafés: guides for group discussions have been made publicly available to encourages small groups of friends, co-workers, or classmates to hold informal discussions about the ways in which the policy and procedures could be improved to better respond to the needs of the UVic community (more info here: https://www.uvic.ca/equity/about/policies/policy-reviews/svpr/index.php#cafe)
More info on the policy review process and consultation strategies check out the Equity and Human Rights Office website: https://www.uvic.ca/equity/about/policies/policy-reviews/svpr/
AVP Student Conversation Café
To help gather feedback the Anti-Violence Project is holding a conversation cafe for past and present UVic students (undergraduate or graduate). This will look like a small group gathering with facilitators designed to explore the policy through conversation with people who are open-minded, respectful, and willing to listen to diverse perspectives. You don’t have to have read or interacted with the policy to be part of the conversation. This conversation cafe will be held over Zoom, a video conferencing platform.
A few things to note:
- You don’t have to have read or interacted with the policy to be part of the conversation – that being said, ahead of the conversation cafe we will email out the policy to registrants who would like to look through it
- This is not a therapeutic space – the purpose of this gathering is to discuss and collect feedback on UVic’s policy. Support will be available if you need it but the event itself will not be focused on disclosures or healing
- We will not be receiving reports – if you are interested in reporting or would like to access support please reach out to or contact the Equity and Human Rights office directly
- Confidentially cannot be guaranteed – as we will be meeting as a group complete confidentiality can not be guaranteed. However you will have complete control about what you choose to share. You do not have to disclose your personal experiences with sexualized violence or interacting with the policy. The collective feedback gathered from the conversation cafe will be shared with the policy advisory committee as from “a group of past and current UVic students” (names and additional identifiers will not be shared outside of the group)
What will be discussed?
Feel free to check out the conversation cafe guide to see the questions that will be discussed, generally these cover 4 topics:
- informal resolution strategies
- intersectionality
- communicating the tensions with university’s competing responsibilities and obligations
- improvement to the 3 pronged mandate of the the Sexual Violence Resource Office: information and support, response options, and education and prevention initiatives
Please only register for this event if you are a current or past University of Victoria student
