Andrew Crighton

News Editor

October 14, 2016 marks the next Green Dot training session at ISU, but what is Green Dot anyway?

Green Dot was developed by Dorothy Edwards at the University of Kentucky as a means to address sexual assault, domestic abuse and other forms of powerbased personal violence. PBPVs are, “Anytime anyone is trying to get power over someone else,” according to Stephanie Richardson, assistant director of the  Janet C. Anderson Gender Resource Center at ISU. That includes everything from bullying or stalking to dating violence or sexual assault.

The training has three main goals: to allow participants to identify signs that may be associated with either victims or perpetrators of PBPV, how to respond to them as an individual and the larger goal of changing the culture on colleges and universities with particular focus on sexual assault.

This is important because, according to Richardson, one in five women and one in 10 men are sexually assaulted during their lifetime, with the ages of 18-24 being the range when it is most likely to occur. That can be attributed to many things, including all of the personal and life changes that occur to an individual at that time in their life.

Green Dot training is traditionally a six hour course that covers four different modules. After three years of this traditional training, trainers at ISU have gained permission from the Green Dot program to offer a shortened three hour course due to the non-traditional nature of ISU’s campus.

“We try and go over why people aren’t acting now when things are happening,” said Sean Fay, Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Specialist for the GRC and Green Dot instructor. “We try and get people to understand that they could be the bystander that steps in and helps someone.”

Fay noted that one of the key things about this program is that by simply  making people aware of this problem and the things they can do makes them more likely to act when they encounter a situation.

Pocatello and ISU are safe communities due their size. However, according to Richardson, sexual assault is still a problem that needs to be taken very seriously here.

During the training sessions, participants can answer questions anonymously via handheld devices. Some of the questions ask if you or anyone you know has been victim to sexual assault.

The percentage in a group is usually 75 percent or higher. “In this age range or in this small town, that’s a lot,” Richardson said. 

The largest issue for the organizers of ISU’s Green Dot training is simply getting people in the door. Fay remarked that these are uncomfortable topics and that all the traditional forms of advertising can be lost in all the other flyers, posters and table toppers that are put out out all over campus.

The strongest advertising campaign they have is the word-of-mouth from individuals who have taken the training.

“It’s important for everyone, if they can, to be involved. Because everyone reaches somebody in a different group,” said Fay. “You don’t plan on being where a sexual assault is going to occur or domestic violence. Everyone walks down the street, everyone goes to restaurants and the movies.”

Although this training is open to everyone, it is aimed towards campus leaders, who can take what they learned and spread that information to the people around them.

All Public Safety officers and campus Resident Assistants go through Green Dot training.

Despite the aim towards leaders, Fay still believes that it is important for younger people in particular to participate.

At this age you learn so many things from so many different places at once and you really start to see what he calls the “wicked problems of society,” and that it’s easy to want to become jaded to them. Green Dot helps provide a manageable way to deal with those problems.

“It’s kind of just going back to that old adage, ‘we need to look out for each other’ and to know that on this campus somebody will step in and help you, even if it’s just calling Public Safety,” Richardson said. This can be summed up in Green Dot’s slogan: no one has to do everything; but everyone has to do something.