Project SAFE hosted Empowerment Week, an annual event held in observance of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Oct. 6–10, according to Project SAFE Director and Survivor Advocate Lizzy Denny. The week consisted of four events: “The Safe Word is ‘Community:’ Pleasure, Politics, Kink and Survivor Solidarity,” “Taking a Strong Stance: Empowerment Through Karate,” “Empowerment Resource Fair” and “Sunset Yoga”.
Project SAFE Prevention Education and Program Manager Alexia Sambrano said the week is meant to provide resources to students as well as a space to heal.
“Our goal with Empowerment Week is to provide knowledge and awareness of what the issue is and then to provide tools and resources not only to combat the harm that is occurring […] but also to heal and encourage survivor solidarity amongst campus community members,” Sambrano said.
Denny said Empowerment Week provides students with community and resources during the time of year with the highest number of reported sexual assaults.
“In October, we’re still in what’s considered the red zone, which is the time period from the beginning of the school year until after Thanksgiving break where more than 50 percent of the reported sexual assaults on campus will take place,” Denny said.
Project SAFE hosted “The Safe Word is ‘Community’: Pleasure Politics, Kink and Survivor Solidarity” at Fowler Hall, Oct 6. According to Sambrano, the event covered how consent applies to different types of relationships.
“We really tried to bring those BDSM and kink concepts back to the basics,” Sambrano said. “Our goal with this is to provide knowledge and also to combat the stigma, because we know that students are curious.”
Emma Patton (senior), a peer advocate at Project SAFE who helped run the event, said students had fun.
“It was good to see people engage with our material and feel open to discussing things in our room,” Patton said. “We got to do some fun arts and crafts that related to our presentation as well.”
Patton said the event aimed to help students feel comfortable in their bodies.
“How do we help people that have experienced harm be able to feel comfortable in their bodies?” Patton said. “Because sometimes there’s feelings of shame and also just traumatic things [that] can make it hard for you to feel like [you’re] in your own body.”
Sambrano said Project SAFE was excited to collaborate with different people for each event, like Postal Operations Manager Victor Chico for “Taking a Strong Stance: Empowerment Through Karate” and Esther Aliah ’22 for “Sunset Yoga.”
“[Aliah] is a full spectrum doula, but also a trauma-informed yoga practitioner,” Sambrano said. “So we’re hoping to bring her back after this week for some programming, specifically related to her work as a full spectrum doula.”
Patton said Project SAFE collaborated with a variety of different groups for the Empowerment Resource Fair on Oct. 8.
“There’s tons of tables with different organizations and offices,” Patton said. “We invite off-campus and on-campus organizations such as the Jenesse Center.”
Project SAFE Survivor Advocate Pilar Montenegro said their events are not just relevant for students who have experienced domestic violence.
“I think it’s normal to walk by and be like, ‘Oh, that doesn’t apply to me,’” Montenegro said. “But I would encourage people to try to see in their everyday lives […] toxic relationships or boundary issues. There are a lot of things that are normalized that shouldn’t be.”
According to Patton, anyone can benefit from attending an event.
“By having this kind of programming and having people engage with it, it means that people are showing their support for survivors and saying that we as a community do not stand for this kind of behavior,” Patton said.
Rosa Hochschild, junior and peer advocate at Project SAFE, said their events can empower students who experience any type of violence.
“An experience that a lot of domestic violence survivors and survivors of other forms of violence go through is the feeling of having your autonomy and power taken away,” Hochschild said. “The feeling of being empowered and the ability to feel empowered is such an important aspect of healing for survivors.”
Sambrano said by addressing the root causes of violence, Project SAFE supports everyone. They said their advocacy covers transphobia, cisnormativity, ableism, class discrimination, patriarchy, racism, homophobia and other systemic injustices.
According to Hochschild, Project SAFE can provide training on harm reduction, safety planning and building healthy relationships for any campus group.
“I think there are groups on campus that would really appreciate training from us that didn’t know they could just reach out and ask,” Hochschild said.
Denny said the goal of Project SAFE’s events is to meet people where they are.
“Showing up to an event doesn’t mean that you’re an advocate and now have to take on the emotional responsibility of helping someone through a process of intimate partner violence,” Denny said. “But it does really show that you’re an ally, and it shows that people can come and talk to you.”
Montenegro said Project SAFE welcomes input on ideas for advocacy and encourages students to be creative.
“If you have any ideas, you can always reach out to us and let us know,” Montenegro said. “We’re totally open to that.”
Contact Nick Dobbs at ndobbs@oxy.edu
