Violence Prevention Educator
Want to talk to your peers about gender violence? Develop your public speaking and leadership skills?
General
Violence Prevention Educators (VPEs) give presentations to college peers on the issues of sexual assault, relationship violence, stalking, and other related topics. They gain language skills to have conversations with friends and community members to foster change through leadership development.
Stats
Over half of the 83 presentations during Spring & Fall 2008 were facilitated by VPEs (the others were led by The Aurora Center professional staff). On average, there are 3 - 4 presentations per month in each semester that become available for VPEs to sign up to facilitate.
Volunteer Hours
VPEs average between 3 - 16 hours per month, depending on the level of involvement. While there are consistent VPE meetings every other week in the school year, the presentations that are available are dependent upon when they are requested and scheduled. Presentations may be on weekends, evenings, and during the day. Being a VPE offers a mix of regular volunteer hours, either by attending meetings regularly or helping out in the office on a scheduled shift, with the flow of available presentations that may (or may not) fit your schedule. For the most part, VPEs succeed in facilitating at least one presentation per semester and some VPEs facilitate 4 - 5 in an academic year.
Also, for every presentation a VPE signs up for, there are 2 - 3 practice times that VPEs must attend. Practices are scheduled based on the availability of the presenters who sign up and last about an hour to an hour and a half.
Meetings
Once accepted into the volunteer position, VPEs begin attending meetings. They are scheduled every other Friday afternoon from 3:00 - 4:30pm and are held during the academic year. VPEs may only be absent from two meetings in two consecutive semesters.
Fall 2009 VPE Meeting Schedule:
All meetings are 3:00 - 4:30pm; east bank location is to be determined.
September 11
September 25
October 9
October 23
November 6
November 20
December 4
Meetings resume at the beginning of spring semester 2010.
Logistics and Expectations
Volunteers in training will have many opportunities to ask questions pertaining to the position, especially what it will be like to give presentations or answer a difficult question from an audience, but provided here is a brief and limited description of what is expected.
The initial training provided to VPEs prepares them to begin practicing rather than ready to present. Facilitating presentations takes time and practice and we lead you through the learning process in building your confidence and skills. VPEs receive a study guide and the facilitator note cards to our main presentation, The Green M&M Project. For any presentation they sign up for, VPEs are provided an outline and materials to help them prepare. With personalized training and practice, VPEs feel well prepared to then present.
As mentioned, VPEs sign up for presentations and they do so by responding to emails sent from the Violence Prevention Education Coordinator. It is a first-come-first-serve process so checking your email is important. We request a two weeks' notice from people who are looking for a presentation but on occasion, we may only have a week to prepare. To give you a general idea, there is about two - three weeks' notice for presentations you can sign up for.
Stipends
VPEs receive a small stipend for each presentation they facilitate.
Summer Break
We slow down during the summer in terms of presentations but we do have a few. If VPEs are not available during the summer break, they are still able to maintain involvement and volunteer during the academic year.
Supervision
Jill Lipski Cain supervises all the VPEs and facilitates the meetings they attend.