(Posted September 20, 2017)

Huntingdon, Pa. – In June 2017, Juniata College was honored at the ninth annual Campus Prevention Network (CPN) Summit presented by EVERFI, Inc. with a Prevention Excellence Award, which recognizes Juniata for their commitment to upholding the highest standards in preventing sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking. Now, CPN is headed to Juniata’s campus, where an award ceremony will be held on September 26, 2017. The celebration begins with a reception at 3:30 p.m. and includes an award presentation at 4 p.m. 

Of the 89 colleges and universities that have completed the SADI and the 85 that have completed the ADI, fewer than 10 percent earned the distinction of being a Prevention Excellence Award honoree. Other colleges and universities honored include American University, Dartmouth College, Vanderbilt University, and the University at Buffalo (SUNY-Buffalo).

“We appreciate the recognition inherent in the EVERFI award and are proud of the measures we take as a College to combat interpersonal violence,” says Juniata College President James A. Troha. “What makes Juniata’s approach unique and successful is the empowerment of people to use their voice and actions to create substantial changes. From students like senior Ellie Hainsworth, who leads healthy relationship programming in the Safe Place to Talk (SPoT) and junior Amy Chen, who is establishing Juniata’s affiliate of It’s On Us to senior Dallas Ricker, who founded the Juniata Men’s Group, many interested individuals across campus have engaged in prevention efforts."  

Colleges and universities that have joined the CPN were eligible for consideration to receive the award through completing either the Sexual Assault Diagnostic Inventory (SADI) or the Alcohol Diagnostic Inventory (ADI)—comprehensive research-based assessments of a school’s prevention programs and practices grounded in a decade of peer-reviewed literature on best practices in prevention. Awardees were selected based on their SADI and ADI scores, CPN staff interviews with campus professionals, and a careful review of each institution’s effort. 

Students like Ricker will meet with CPN representatives on Juniata’s campus. CPN representatives will include Preston Clark, EVERFI President; Rob Below, EVERFI Vice President of Prevention Education; and Holly Rider-Milkovich, EVERFI Senior Director, Prevention Education. During their time at Juniata, these representatives will meet with students, who lead many of Juniata’s prevention efforts, as well as senior leaders. 

Juniata seeks to create a safe, respectful, and healthy campus for all students. The College’s Title IX staff are all professionally trained by nationally recognized Title IX experts like the Association for Title IX Administrators, the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management, and Magna Publications. Juniata also utilizes EVERFI’s HAVEN, an online training course on understanding sexual assault, to train students, faculty and staff. 

 “Juniata College is committed to creating an enhanced culture of engaged bystander intervention, while providing confidential, competent, and comprehensive services to survivors of dating and domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking”, says Jody Kosack Althouse, Director of the Office for the Prevention of Interpersonal Violence. “One of the truly unique characteristics of Juniata is that the entire community is participating in learning violence prevention strategies and healthy relationship building tactics, from administrators to students, faculty and staff.”

The nationally recognized bystander intervention program “Green Dot” will be fully implemented on Juniata’s campus during fall 2017. It continues grassroots efforts started by Juniata faculty, staff and students who collaborated to create the group Juniata College Students and Faculty Ending Rape (JCSAFER) in 2012. That group has now evolved into the Juniata “It’s On Us” campaign and the Juniata Men’s Group, which was founded in 2016–both of which are actively engaged in raising awareness and serving as a platform for dialogue and action to strengthen a culture of consent on campus.  

 

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.