About

About SRVP

ASU has been providing evidence-based and theory-driven sexual violence prevention and education since the 1980’s. Previously known as the Sexual Violence Prevention and Education Program, the Sexual and Relationship Violence Program (SRVP) was housed under ASU Wellness for many years and collaborated with university employees and students to deliver holistic wellness education.

In 2016, the university expanded the program to solely focus on preventing violence and cultivating healthy relationships in our community, and the SRVP program was formed. SRVP program staff work with organizations and departments across the university that are involved in sexual violence prevention response, support research and prevention.

Mission

Our mission is to openly deconstruct and transform behaviors, social norms and attitudes that contribute to power-based interpersonal violence and oppression by focusing on relationship building, cultural strengths, and offering education, social marketing and student involvement through an intersectional and anti-oppression lens.

Vision

We envision a community free of violence, one where all members are empowered to take action to prevent coercion, discrimination and violence, and thus are able to cultivate healthy relationships and norms.

Values

Empathy

In recognition of the fact that empathy is a protective factor against the experience of sexual violence, it is vital that SRVP’s decisions come from an empathic perspective and directive. This enables SRVP to be mindful of all student experiences of oppression, violence, resilience, strength and more.

Connectedness

We aim to foster community through all of our educational programs and initiatives, where people feel connected and take responsibility for one another. This means that all Sun Devils work together to create a safe and thriving community where violence isn’t excused or tolerated.

Growth

With growth as one of our core values, we seek to develop our team to approach sexual and relationship violence prevention in innovative and cross-disciplinary ways. A growth mindset culture also involves a commitment to continuous learning and improvement, part of which involves seeking community feedback and cultivating dialogue in order to root prevention in the community and nurture trust.

Accountability

Being accountable involves first recognizing how we are embedded within institutions that can inflict harm on our vulnerable communities and resisting these reproductions. SRVP also believes that all people should be held accountable for harmful actions, as well as encouraged to grow and change their attitudes, behavior, and knowledge to contribute positively to their campus community.

Equity

We have a responsibility to address how inextricably linked anti-oppression and anti-violence work is. When creating structures, programs, events, or presentations, we recognize that implementing equitable practices to ensure that all members of our community are given the opportunity to engage in the movement to prevent violence is very important.

Commitment to inclusion

We are committed to building an actively anti-racist and anti-oppressive community, where all of our faculty, staff, and students are safe, feel cared for, and have the necessary structures in place to thrive. As mentioned in the ASU charter, we are measured by whom we include and how they succeed, and are therefore responsible for the health and wellness of the communities we serve.

We particularly want to focus on empowering and lifting up voices from underrepresented and/or marginalized communities, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), individuals with disabilities and varying ability statuses, and LGBTQIA2S+. Because sexual violence flourishes in an atmosphere of shame and stigma, it is necessary to amplify the voices of

survivors who are typically underrepresented in this space, such as male survivors, immigrants, undocumented victims and others, in addition to the communities already mentioned.

Sexual and relational violence has long been interwoven and upheld by other systems of oppression (such as racism, classism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, etc). It is therefore necessary to simultaneously dismantle these systems as we work towards a happier, healthier, and violence-free society.

To that end, listed below are the immediate actions that we will be taking in order to further embed anti-racist values into our work.

Education
We commit to continuously improving our curriculum, educational offerings, and evaluative efforts to ensure that different perspectives and voices are included. These improvements include more diverse statistics to reflect the realities of sexual violence in marginalized communities, discussions of privilege and oppression as it relates to violence, and a focus on assessing how programs impact groups differently, among others.
Student involvement
SRVP has deep gratitude for the strengths ASU’s diverse student body brings to our community and focuses on intentionally creating opportunities in which ASU students can engage in and lead sexual and relationship violence prevention initiatives.
Social marketing, media and messaging
We commit to continual expansion of and access to social marketing, media and messaging which is responsive to diverse student communities.
Signature events and programming
In addition to expanding the list of partners we work with on signature programming, we also commit to exploring in more depth, the intersections of various identities with sexual and relational violence.
Peer support initiatives
We commit to connecting survivors to a diverse range of resources, recognizing that there are many barriers tied to identity and accessibility that constrain victims from receiving the support that they need. We also strive to use interdisciplinary approaches to the topics of support and survivorship.

We look forward to continued conversations within our community to ensure that all stakeholders are included in this process.