Queen’s University is creating a dedicated Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Coordinator position. The coordinator will be the central point of contact for students, staff and faculty and will lead campus-wide education, response, support, training and advocacy activities.

The new position will be housed in a new Sexual Violence Support Office and is the most recent step taken as part of the university’s response to a report and recommendations from its Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Working Group.

An implementation team, chaired by Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Alan Harrison, began its work in July, to advance the working group’s recommendations. The new role aligns with models at other universities, as well as recently introduced provincial anti-sexual violence legislation.

“Queen’s has enhanced the profile of its sexual violence support services on and off campus, introduced new education programming for students and new resources and training for students, staff and faculty,” says Harrison. “We will continue our work on sexual violence prevention and response, which will include updating our draft sexual assault policy to reflect provincial requirements. The new position will play a leading role in helping us build on our progress to date.”

For the start of the academic year, the university updated and distributed a “Steps for students to take after a sexual assault” resource poster; updated the Green Folder resource for faculty members, teaching assistants and staff, to provide more detail about the steps students can take if they or someone they know has experienced sexual violence; created and implemented new first-responder and bystander training; implemented new sexual violence-related prevention and education initiatives in orientation week; and hosted a visit and talk by the American gender violence scholar Dr. Rachel Griffin.

Learn more about Queen’s services and supports involving sexual violence.