U of Windsor staff learn how to respond to sexual violence

Staff members at the University of Windsor are training this week on how to properly respond to reports of sexual assault.

A three-hour workshop held Thursday aims to help people on campus recognize cases of sexual violence and assault in a bid to create better outcomes for victims.

• Sexual assault program at University of Windsor expanding
• U of Windsor professors, coaches to learn how to respond to reports of sexual violence

An important component to the course will be reminding staff that people respond to sexual violence differently, explained Caiti Casey, the project coordinator. 

"We want them to broaden their spectrum of what sexual violence can be," she said. "We just want to break some really dangerous prevalent myths." 

The course has helped Beth Oakley, director of student success centre, who regularly works with students. She recently took the course can already see where she can apply what she's learned. 

"I definitely see where I have in the past communicated with students in this situation and now I feel a little more confident in how I could do that more effectively," she said. 

Staff also have to create a classroom environment that encourages people to come forward, said Casey, who has frontline experience working in sexual assault crisis centres in St. Thomas, London and Sarnia. 

Survivors need to feel comfortable, so they can be more willing to talk.

"We want to give the power of the survivor to share their experience, only when they want to," Casey said. 

Oakley said all staff will benefit from the course. Because students naturally form relationships with their professors, there is always a chance they will trust them enough to come forward.

"It's when you least expect it, it's a result of a relationship you form with students," she said. "You never know when someone's going to come forward with this information."