Members of the student organization Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment enjoyed a year full of activities, from the production of sexual-assault awareness videos to discussions about cultural differences in the experience of sexual assault.
One significant event for the organization, according to its web site, www.helppavetheway.org, was the expansion of PAVE from UW-Madison’s campus to another college campus in Wisconsin.
“As the founder of PAVE, my long-term goal is to empower leadership in other communities and on other college campuses,” Rose said. “As of the Fall 2001, PAVE has expanded to another location in the mid-west. I met Cindy at a PAVE fundraising concert last April. We both agreed that starting a PAVE in her community was a great idea.”
PAVE also worked on a campus-safety campaign designed to alert the general student population about sexual assault by hanging posters in locations where many students would see them.
“Last semester we worked with the student government on putting up posters on sexual-assault awareness in the men’s and women’s bathrooms of bars and restaurants in the downtown area,” Rose said. “We have to replace the ones that have been torn down.”
Another significant event for PAVE was the completion of two sexual-assault videos co-produced by Rose. The videos, “Transition to Survivor: Parts I and II,” are currently advertised on the PAVE website. PAVE co-chair Stephanie Burns is working with Rose to promote the videos to high schools, police-enforcement agencies, and other public forums nationwide.
UW senior and PAVE chair Dana Borowski cited two other major projects PAVE worked on this school year, aside from monthly meetings and planning many of the events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
The Conference of Healing, held at Union South in late April, was one of PAVE’s important projects, Borowski said.
“The objective of the conference was to aid survivors and their family and friends in the process of healing,” Borowski said. “It was also for anyone else affected by sexual assault.”
The conference included a variety of workshops and discussions addressing topics such as sexual assault in different ethnic or cultural communities and how to be a supportive partner to a sexual assault victim.
PAVE also held a cultural teach-in in late April. The teach-in included a panel discussion concerning issues of sexual assault for persons other than white female heterosexuals, such as black women, minority women and the LGBT community.
“Some of the speakers talked about how sexual assault affects black women and other groups differently,” Borowski said.
Borowski said this event allowed different perspectives about an important issue to be discussed and brought into the open. She said she hopes more such events will be facilitated by PAVE in coming years.
“It’s the first thing like it that I’ve seen on a college campus,” Borowski said. “At a place like Madison where the population is predominantly white, these things are really important.”
