This October during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Safer, the on-campus organization dedicated to combating gender and power-based violence through their services is launching “The Pathways to Partnership,” a campaign aimed at bringing awareness to dating violence and promoting healthy partnerships.
On Tuesday, Safer held an event on Baker Lawn called Lunch and Learn: Boundaries in the Dorm to talk about sex and intimacy in the dorm. This event was the first of many events that Safer planned for Pathways to Partnerships, the word “partnership” being used to widen the scope of all types of relationships.
“Every year, fall quarter is an opportunity to start fresh,” Safer Violence Prevention Specialist Jennifer MacMartin wrote in an email to Mustang News. “Dating Violence Action Month falls within many students’ first few weeks at Cal Poly, so we are seeking to set healthy communication and education as the norm here.”
Events this month cover a variety of topics such as dating violence, healthy relationship building, sex ed and navigating “hookup culture.”
“Our goal is to normalize these conversations to cultivate a safer dating culture at Cal Poly,” MacMartin wrote.
During some of their events, Safer is hosting giveaways for people to win free prizes to engage students.
“We hope that events like these will set the tone for healthy community dialogue for the rest of the school year and are excited to finally put these plans to action,” Safer Prevention Education Student Lead Alondra Rossi wrote in an email to Mustang News.
Safer will host a University Graphics System Screen Printing event for Purple Thursday in the Printing Press building (BLDG 26A) on Oct. 19 and a “Twilight” Movie Screening on Oct. 20 at the Wellbeing Patio outside of Campus Health and Wellbeing (BLDG 27). They will be discussing themes of relationships and dating in the movie, and how it might have shaped one’s perception of these topics.
“The grip that Twilight had on me when I was younger was real and I’m excited to see how our peers deconstruct some of the dating and relationship themes that occurred in that movie,” Rossi wrote.
Students can find a calendar of events on safer.calpoly.edu and updates and reminders about events on the Safer Instagram page. The calendar of events also includes any giveaway information for certain events.
“We want this month to be a chance for students to learn more about the resources available to them, as well as participate in all the fun events we have planned,” Rossi wrote.