The Campus Advocacy Network (CAN) is pleased to announce that registration for the 5th Annual Peers to Allies Leadership Retreat will open in July!
What is Peers to Allies?
Peers to Allies is a violence prevention program that situates leadership, bystander intervention and social justice education as the cornerstones for student engagement. UIC student leaders attend a three-day camping retreat where they participate in workshops, interactive activities and facilitated dialogues. Through our evidence-based curriculum, leaders develop a deeper self-awareness that increases their ability to recognize signs of interpersonal violence and learn practical bystander intervention skills, all while making meaningful connections with other student leaders from the UIC community. Through several years of assessment we know that Peers to Allies provides measurable results that contribute to making UIC a safer campus for everyone.
Campus SaVE and Title IX
Peers to Allies is a free opportunity for your office or individuals to receive education and training mandated by the Campus SaVE Act and Title IX. In an attempt to reduce sexual violence on college campuses these two federal mandates recommend that all current students at UIC be offered an opportunity to receive education and training on issues of interpersonal violence. At this retreat students learn to recognize the signs of sexual assault, domestic/dating violence and stalking. They learn valuable leadership and bystander intervention skills that allow them to build a safer UIC for everyone. Our interactive curriculum focuses on leadership development in which students learn tools to create a campus that is free from interpersonal violence. If you are an interested student you can nominate yourself by emailing can.wlrc@gmail.com.
Event Details
Peers to Allies will take place from Friday, September 16 through Sunday, September 18, 2016 at Camp MacLean in the beautiful woods of Wisconsin. All travel, lodging and trainings are free for any UIC student. For more information about the retreat and to register, please visit peerstoallies.uic.edu.
Participant Testimonies
The retreat increases students’ understanding of being an ally:
“Not being gay, but supporting someone’s decision to be and participating in their movement as an ally”
“Being in the privileged group, we can speak openly and ‘on the same level’ with people who share the same privilege and, ideally, [they will] listen to us” {sic}
“I had never shared what I shared and I actually teared up which usually I can control but it felt so good to share a piece of my story and to hear others because it felt inspiring” [sic]
The retreat helps students build relationships with students from different peer groups:
“Hearing people’s testimony… it was amazing to have people open up to others they didn’t know well and to open myself up to others I didn’t know well”
“The most powerful moment was the testimonial because everyone got to really share with one another their experience… getting to know each other because it made me understand the behavior of each person and well most of the people here are survivors and that if they are, why not me?”
See last year's participants in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8wd6TqCk18
Questions? Contact Keisa Reynolds at keisa@uic.edu.
