{"id":2965,"date":"2013-02-13T13:35:10","date_gmt":"2013-02-13T17:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/?p=2965"},"modified":"2015-03-23T12:46:07","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T16:46:07","slug":"safety-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/2013\/02\/13\/safety-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Advocating for Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

New sexual assault response center combines prevention and counseling.<\/h2>\n

By Rachel Johnson (MET\u201911)
\nPhotos by Cydney Scott<\/h4>\n
\"Caption
The SARP team (clockwise from front left): Director Maureen Mahoney, Health and Prevention Educator Antonio Arrendel, Crisis Intervention Counselor Beth Kozik, Administrative Coordinator Jenna Vaillancourt, and Crisis Intervention Counselor Jessica Sparks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whether it\u2019s their first day of kindergarten or when they have kids of their own, your children and their well-being are always on your mind. When children live away from home for the first time, parents want to know that they are taking care of themselves\u2014and staying safe. In fall 2012, Boston University opened the Sexual Assault Response & Prevention Center (SARP)<\/a> to address the difficult topic of sexual assault on campus and to train the community to prevent it. Fittingly, students played a key role in the center\u2019s formation<\/a>\u2014the idea for bringing prevention and crisis counseling under one roof came from members of the Center for Gender, Sexuality & Activism<\/a>. According to SARP director Maureen Mahoney<\/a>, who has been a crisis counselor at BU for more than 18 years, it\u2019s rare for institutions to combine response and<\/i> prevention. She spoke with Parent<\/i> magazine about how her team can help students\u2014and parents.<\/p>\n

Parent<\/i>: What services does the center offer?<\/b>
\nMaureen Mahoney:<\/b> Advocacy. We accompany students to the emergency room, and help them get any medical care or exam they might need. We help with legal situations. I\u2019ve helped students tell their parents what happened; I\u2019ve helped students who needed some assistance or leniency with academics or jobs. SARP also provides individual therapy, and we\u2019ve started a group for survivors of sexual assault. We give students accurate, useful information so they can make decisions that they feel comfortable with. We don\u2019t tell them what to do, but we help them negotiate the situation with other people in their lives. It depends on what\u2019s most helpful, and what the students want. We can be with a student from the first time they contact us until they graduate. A clinician is always on call, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We also do prevention initiatives, like “Take Back the Night<\/a>,\u201d and about 1,700 student leaders have gone through our \u201cStep Up. Step In. BU\u201d bystander training<\/a> program.<\/p>\n

What is bystander training?<\/b>
\n\"sarp_quote\"Research has shown that if one person steps up and intervenes in a situation, other people will follow. We give students scripts for getting involved. It can be helpful for people to have a concrete way to intercede\u2014a way to check in with a friend who seems to have had too much to drink, let\u2019s say, about whether he or she is safe. So the training prepares people to help if they see someone in a bad situation. We\u2019ve trained student-athletes, resident assistants, club leaders, any student who\u2019s expressed an interest. And President Brown and the Dean of Students office require certain groups to partake. I think it\u2019s been really, really successful, and a lot of students have been engaged by it.<\/p>\n

Why is it important to have a center like SARP on campus?<\/b>
\nOne reason is the age group of our students; statistically, they\u2019re more at risk for experiencing a sexual assault than any other age group. Having SARP here puts prevention up front, so BU becomes known as a place where your peers don\u2019t allow you to be harmed or to harm another person. Even though \u201cSexual Assault\u201d is in our name, we also focus on the situations that allow sexual assault to happen, like violence in interpersonal relationships\u2014helping people understand what is a healthy relationship, what is a controlling relationship, and how to get out of a relationship that\u2019s not helpful for them.<\/p>\n

What follow-up is there after a visit or call?<\/b>
\nWe reach out to students. A student\u2019s initial response is often to just want life to go on as usual. And part of that is being able to, for a period of time, suppress what happened. And we understand that. We\u2019ll often talk about that with students in the initial meeting. We follow up, in a noninvasive way, by email or texting. I\u2019ll say, \u201cHey, how\u2019re you doing? I\u2019m still here. Let me know.\u201d We have a secure messaging system where we can see if a student has read the message. It\u2019s not always important that the student get back to us right away; we just want to remind them that we\u2019re here.<\/p>\n

What can you say to parents?<\/b>
\nThat usually depends on the level of involvement the student wants. I\u2019ve met with students and their parents together; that\u2019s not an unusual thing to do. If a student gives me permission to talk to parents, I will talk to the student about the parameters of that. And if a parent calls, we will always listen. But we\u2019re bound by law to confidentiality, so unless a student\u2019s immediate safety is a concern, we can\u2019t disclose information to anyone, even parents. But we will always listen to a parent who calls. And often, we\u2019ll help students talk to their parents about what happened. SARP also has a guide for parents.<\/p>\n

What do you like best about the center?<\/b>
\nThe luxury of being able to see any student. A misconception about the center I\u2019ve heard is \u201cI don\u2019t have the BU insurance, so I can\u2019t go there.\u201d We do not charge students or their insurance\u2014SARP services are part of the student health fee. Also, the possibilities. We\u2019ve had so much administrative and student support; it can help us make a real impact in individuals\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

What would you most want parents to know about the center?<\/b>
\n\"sarp_quote3\"That it exists. That we\u2019re here to advocate for students and help make them safer. And that talking to students about not harming each other, about respecting each other, can happen away from BU, too.<\/p>\n

SARP is located at 930 Commonwealth Avenue, and the staff may be reached at 617-353-SARP (7277). <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New sexual assault response center combines prevention and counseling. By Rachel Johnson (MET\u201911) Photos by Cydney Scott Whether it\u2019s their first day of kindergarten or when they have kids of their own, your children and their well-being are always on your mind. When children live away from home for the first time, parents want to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4966,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8952,8954],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4966"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2965"}],"version-history":[{"count":45,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4753,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2965\/revisions\/4753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}