Clark University’s Anti-Violence Education (CAVE) program recently was named by the U.S. Department of Education as a “case study” for violence prevention programming. Clark is one of only seven universities to be singled out as a national model in the violence prevention category. Clark University has long been committed to providing antiviolence education and prevention services. More than 30 years ago, the Daybreak program, known as the most comprehensive domestic violence program in the Greater Worcester area, was founded on the Clark campus. The Rape Crisis Center of Central Massachusetts was started at Clark in 1973. They are now separate organizations, and both work with the Clark University Anti-Violence Education (CAVE) program.
* To learn more about violence prevention at Clark University and the CAVE program, click here. *
The CAVE program’s goal is to reduce dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking at Clark through awareness and educational programs, most notably bystander intervention programs. It is a coordinated effort by several offices at Clark and representatives from concerned student groups. This coordinated campus response team meets regularly to discuss policies, procedures, and programming on campus that are related to issues of dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The CAVE program is directed by Professors Denise Hines and Kathleen Palm Reed from the Psychology Department. Palm Reed, who is associate director of clinical training and research assistant professor in the Psychology Department, said that when she and Hines began working at Clark, they realized they shared an interest in violence prevention. The professors also noted several efforts that were already under way at Clark, although being handled separately by student organizations and through different departments. “It was striking when we started to put things together how much was being done,” Palm Reed said. “Violence prevention was already a part of the campus culture. So what we’ve been able to do at CAVE is provide a place where everyone can talk together and consolidate our prevention efforts.”
“Through our CAVE program, Clark University is one of the rare universities to take a proactive role in violence prevention. We do not have more of a violence problem than any other university, but we do recognize that college students are among the highest risk groups for sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking, and that the only way to deal with this issue is to openly acknowledge, talk about, and take efforts to prevent it,” adds Hines, Clark research assistant professor of psychology. Hines recently was invited to present her research at the Roundtable of Family Dynamics of the Senate of Canada, a symposium chaired by Senator Anne Cools in May at Parliament in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Her report is titled “Overlooked Victims of Domestic Violence: Men.” Click here to learn more.
