Request a Workshop or Training about Sexual Violence
Thank you for your interest in scheduling a workshop with Sexual Violence Response. If you are looking for an SVR presentation for new student orientation, please use this form.
Please submit the workshop request form to schedule a workshop. Workshops listed below are available for students of Columbia University and affiliated schools. Workshops are divided into two categories: Foundational workshops and Next Level workshops. Faculty and staff can request a training by sending an email to [email protected].
The Workshop Request Form must be submitted at least four weeks prior to the requested date and the location must be reserved and confirmed at least one week in advance.
Programs will be facilitated by SVR student volunteers and/or SVR professional staff.
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Workshop Descriptions
Foundational Level Workshops
These sessions should last one to two hours. The following workshops serve as an introduction to Sexual Violence, bystander intervention, healthy relationships/sexuality, and/or support skills.
- Media Literacy in Print - The critical analysis and evaluation of different forms of media that influence a culture of interpersonal and power-based violence.
- Sexual Harassment: When Professional Development Is Compromised - Many students work, have internships, or field placements in a professional work environment where they strive to meet their professional goals daily. When sexual harassment is occurring in an environment where a lot of time is spent, the ability to have growth and experience well-being can become limited. This session will encourage participants to think critically about sexual harassment and possible ways to respond to sexual harassment.
- Introduction to Step UP! - Learn about pro-social bystander intervention and understand safe, effective ways to intervene in situations of sexual violence, intimate partner violence, stalking, and harassment.
- Relationships, Dates, & Hookups: What’s Healthy, What’s Not? – Learn about healthy relationship behaviors, the definition of sexual violence, and what sexual consent is and is not.
- Yes and Oh Yeah – Participants are introduced to sexual consent and its role in healthy relationships. Learn how to navigate consent using verbal communication skills and discuss how to keep the conversation going in a fun and clear manner.
- Consensual Queer – When mainstream models of consent often do not address your needs as someone from the LGBTQ+ community, this discussion will look to address the needs of this community, specifically with a focus on those who identify as queer and/or trans people. In this discussion, you will leave with new models of consent that speak to this specific community lens.
- "We Were on a Break" Negotiation and Communication – Ross & Rachel, the infamous couple from Friends who were rarely on the same page, are the inspiration to talk about communication and negotiation styles. Participants will watch excerpts from two of the most memorable episodes ("The One Where Ross & Rachel Take a Break"- Season 3, Episode 15 and "The One with the Jelly Fish"- Season 4, Episode 1) about miscommunication, then discuss communication in relationships and discover their personal approach with a quiz.
- Responding to Disclosures – The goal of this workshop is to review how to intervene in situations of potential or active sexual violence and to prepare student on effective ways to respond when a fellow student discloses harm done to them.
- Supporting Someone Who Has Experienced Intimate Partner Violence – During this interactive session, participants will examine the behaviors and warning signs that may be indicators of an unhealthy or abusive relationship and understand how to gauge next steps in the event that a relationship becomes violent. Participants will also learn about different ways to effectively support someone who is in an abusive relationship.
Next Level Workshops
These sessions should last one to two hours. Requesting the following workshops means that you have an introductory level understanding of Sexual Violence, bystander intervention, healthy relationships/sexuality, and/or support skills.
- Advocate Abroad: Responding to Sexual Harassment Abroad – Many Columbia students work and study in countries all around the world, and these students should be well versed in how to manage issues of sexual harassment in their new environments. This workshop encourages participants to think critically about the intersections of cultural values, sexual harassment, and individual values before they embark on field work in another country.
- Loving Me Means This (impact of intimate partner violence version) – In the wake of relationship violence and trauma establishing healthy relationship dynamics can be particularly difficult. In this day and age is it increasingly common to romanticize toxic behaviors (Manson, 2015a). According to The Angry Therapist, John Kim (2016), “we focus so much on who we want to love, we forget about how we want to be loved.” In Loving Me Means This, students will considering what it means for a partner to love them, and then examine toxic relationship habits that most people believe are acceptable (Manson, 2015a), or even romantic, as well as healthy behaviors often considered venomous (Manson, 2015b). The goal is to unpack internalized toxicity regarding relationships – romantic and beyond.
- RelationShorts – Via the use of film and television clips, RelationShorts aims to provide time for students to explore the barriers to successful communication and negotiation regarding sexual relationships, and to analyze effective and ineffective methods.
- Impact; Accountability – The goal of Impact; Accountability is to initiate campus cultural shifts in embracing humility, exercising accountability, and taking ownership of oversights by providing concrete techniques and scenarios on accountability and apologizing through experiential exercises and activities. In doing so, the facilitators also aim to highlight and recognize the spaces within the Columbia University campus culture where accountability is most needed and to ensure the impact of student actions and behaviors matches their intent.
- Loving Me Means This (boundaries version) – In this day and age is it increasingly common to romanticize toxic behaviors (Manson, 2015a). According to The Angry Therapist, John Kim (2016), “we focus so much on who we want to love, we forget about how we want to be loved.” In Loving Me Means This, students will considering what it means for a partner to love them, and then examine toxic relationship habits that most people believe are acceptable (Manson, 2015a), or even romantic, as well as healthy behaviors often considered venomous (Manson, 2015b). The goal is to explore what makes a relationship healthy for us.
- On Lines Crossed: Boundary Setting Online and IRL – Whether talking to someone through texts or in real life boundaries are important. Let’s talk about why! During the workshop On Lines Crossed: Boundary Setting from Online to IRL participants will be encouraged to explore what healthy boundaries are, and how to set them in budding relationships.
- Porn, Porn, Everywhere! – Since the Egyptians, Greeks, and Nomads, we could say that porn has always existed in some shape or form, from the oldest society to the newest YouTube video. The question really is, what do we think about it for ourselves? Through this discussion, we will examine our personal values about pornography and develop a framework for making decisions about pornography consumption.
- What Can I Do? Empowerment Model to Support Others – Given the high rates of intimate partner, sexual, dating and domestic violence and stalking on college campuses, we may know someone experiencing these forms of violence. This can be a tough situation to deal with and you may not know what to do, how or if you would be able to support someone. In this session, participants will gain practical skills to effectively support a peer or friend who has been impacted by these forms of violence and an in-depth understanding of resources available on campus.