Macalester College Awarded Grant to Support Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Prevention and Response

Saint Paul, Minn. — Macalester has received a $300,000 grant from U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women to support sexual assault and relationship violence prevention and response. The project, titled “Integrating Resources: Comprehensive, Coordinated Campus Prevention & Response,” will coordinate and enhance prevention and response resources related to sexual assault, dating/domestic violence, and stalking. The project will include elements to address the unique needs of students of color, international students, LGBTQ+ students, and students with disabilities and will incorporate work with several community organization partners.

“The project will address the pressing need for Macalester College to coordinate resources both across campus and with our surrounding St. Paul community to create more robust and comprehensive prevention and response to sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking,” said Jennifer Jacobsen, Director of Health Promotion and Sexual Respect at Macalester. “This vote of confidence in our vision from the Office on Violence Against Women will provide needed momentum in advancing this work.”

Staff from Macalester’s Title IX office and Laurie Hamre Center for Health & Wellness have worked closely on prevention and response initiatives and will continue their partnership as they expand their work through the grant. Campus partnerships with other units including Center for Disability Resources, multicultural life, international student programs, and residential life will be expanded and strengthened.

Proposed project activities include:

• Developing and launching a coordinated response team regarding campus-wide response to sexual assault, dating/domestic violence, and stalking
• Facilitating the presence of community partners’ advocates on Macalester’s campus and increased awareness and use of their services by students, staff, and faculty
• Providing trauma-informed training for campus safety, campus on-call staff, campus confidential resources, campus adjudicators/hearing officers, and members of the campus community
• Collaborating with campus and community partners to adapt and provide developmental, culturally-appropriate, and linguistically-accessible print or electronic materials, strategies, and programs to address prevention, intervention, and response for incidents of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual violence, and stalking
• Enhancing our prevention programming for the entire campus community, which includes bystander intervention programs for all students

“In my time at Macalester, it became clear to me that students needed to be better connected to resources, like advocacy, but something stops them from seeking this support when the support is provided off-campus,” said Regina Curran, who served as Title IX Coordinator through September, 2021. “My hope with this grant was that it would push Macalester toward better integration with support resources and hopefully make the pathways for connecting with those resources easier. Individuals who experience violence need more than just the Title IX Office and I think this will be a great step in helping close that gap.”

Learn more about Macalester at macalester.edu.