Carroll University's Office of Violence Prevention has developed a cohort-model healthy masculinity curriculum that will be implemented for the third year in a row during Spring 2020.
The curriculum was developed in response to national studies that found that 'risk reduction' programming is not effective in reducing campus sexual assault. Our healthy masculinity curriculum focuses on recognizing each individual's role in battling gender-based violence, leading to a shift in small group sub-cultures. Our Healthy Masculinity Cohort (HMC) at Carroll focuses on building empathy, educating on gender-based violence, and intervention skill-building.
We want to prepare our students to be successful, both personally and vocationally, and engage in the world around them. Gender-based violence is an issue of growing concern on campuses across the US. We want to help our male students engage in the conversation, have a voice, and empower them as part of solution.
Why?
"In the United States, an estimated 19.3% of women and 1.7% of men have been raped during their lifetimes... An estimated 43.9% of women and 23.4% of men experienced other forms of sexual violence during their lifetimes, including being made to penetrate, sexual coercion, unwanted sexual contact, and non-contact unwanted sexual experiences.....An estimated 15.2% of women and 5.7% of men have been a victim of stalking during their lifetimes."
9 of 10 rapes are committed against females.
What does the program look like?
Each year, the Healthy Masculinity Cohort (HMC) meets once per week, over the course of nine weeks, at the Office of Victim Services: Richard Smart House. During our second year of the cohort, we had also developed a peer mentor program consisting of men who completed the pilot group in the Spring of 2018. Our peer mentors work with the current participants to support and encourage them as they partake in the program. Peer mentors conduct check-ins with their mentees, co-facilitate group sessions, and serve as a resource for new and potential group members who have questions about the group. If you are interested in learning more or joining a HMC, please contact our Project Coordinator, Leah Devine, at 262-524-7099 or ldevine@carrollu.edu.
Sources:
"Prevalence and Characteristics of Sexual Violence, Stalking, and Intimate Partner Violence Victimization--National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, United States, 2011."
www.rainn.org