Lime green chalk-dots pepper the sidewalks in the academic quad and throughout DePauw’s campus; signalling the start of Green Dot Week.
Green Dot is a prevention based program working toward reducing power based violence. Green Dot week is being celebrated with events to encourage awareness of interpersonal violence before the next training session on Nov. 5.
Junior Liam Byrnes is one of two Green Dot Student Interns. Byrnes said the fall Green Dot week is an opportunity to raise awareness at the beginning of the school year. “People are just starting to arrive back on campus and freshmen are getting their first taste of the DePauw social scene,” Byrnes said. The Green Dot program trains students how to notice potentially harmful situations of violence where one person, referred to as a red dot, has power over another, and how to intervene.
Green Dot has similarities with other organizations on campus. Code TEAL and TIPS are programs that encourage student intervention to help keep DePauw students safe. Code Teal emphasizes supporting survivors of sexual assault, while TIPS is a responsible alcohol use initiative.
Wendy Wippich, director of special projects and assessment, said all clubs on campus should work together. “As a community, we can do a better job of looking out for each other, and all the clubs should work together to fill in the gaps to reach as many students as possible,” Wippich said.
Green Dot training focuses on prevention techniques to supplement the intervention by other organizations. “What I think is really exciting about the work that Green Dot does is that it focuses on not even having those tragic instances come up in the first place,” Byrnes said.
Since implementing the program on campus in 2011, students like sophomore Rabia Daud have noticed a change in campus climate. Daud benefitted from being Green Dot trained. “I am better at active listening, not only at parties but also just around campus,” Daud said.
She also noticed how her friends have implemented Green Dot strategies at parties. “Most of my friends use the Green Dot language and talk to someone saying ‘you’re being a red dot’ kind of as a joke, but it is a good way to bring light to what is happening so that people notice,” Daud said.
The strategies used by the Green Dot program throughout the training are the Three D’s: Direct, Distract and Delegate. The goal is to emphasize that there is an intervention plan for any type of personality, help change the campus climate as a whole, and reduce and eliminate “red dot” situations by overflowing campus with “green dots.”
“The goal is obviously to have a campus where there is no power based personal violence and all students can attend without worry for their safety,” Wippich said. “While we obviously all have to do more, not everyone has to do everything, everyone just has to do something.”
To get Green Dot trained for the upcoming session, email greendot@depauw.edu for more information. There will be a mini Green Dot training session with free food Sept. 27 at lunch in the Student Organization space in the Union Building Basement for interested students.
