Gonzaga’s Going Green – Green Dot, That Is!

If you walk anywhere on campus these days and ask students about Gonzaga’s Green Dot campaign, more than likely they have heard about it or have participated in a program or know enough to share what Green Dot is about.  I was driving to work the other day and stopped at a red light.  When the light changed, I instantly thought about Green Dot!

So you ask, what is Green Dot? This engaging power-based personal violence prevention strategy challenges every member of the Gonzaga community to become an active bystander when they perceive a situation to be high-risk for potential violence (whether sexual, emotional, or physical in nature).  Informed by social change theory, Green Dot targets all community members as potential bystanders, and seeks to engage them through awareness, education and skills-practice, in proactive behaviors that establish intolerance of violence as the norm, as well as reactive interventions in high-risk situations – resulting in the ultimate reduction of violence.

This past year, the Gonzaga community embraced this new campaign and began the cultural shift!  Male students who participated in Mantalk meetings shared their Green Dot moments; a female student conveyed how she ran down the back stairwell in her residence hall shouting “Red Dot, Red Dot” to highlight what she believed could be a potential red dot situation; students commented on their Facebook pages about the “amazing Green Dot program” facilitated in their residence hall; and numerous students shared their moments of empowered action, no longer being passive bystanders.  During the course of the year, the Green Dot program was presented to over 1,500 students, staff, faculty and administration.  As a grass roots effort, the students really facilitated the bubbling up of the culture shift and can anticipate seeing an even greater presence of Green Dot as the new school year begins.

This nationally recognized best practice is guiding how we all think about sexual harassment and how this type of violence needs to stop! No one person has to do everything, however, everyone has to do something!  To learn more about Gonzaga’s Green Dot campaign, please visit us at www.gonzagagreendot.com.  This program is facilitated through the Student Wellness Resource Center (SWRC) –www.gonzaga.edu/swrc.

“I can make a difference no matter how small it may seem at the time,
it adds up.  Kind of like a coin in a jar.”
~ Gonzaga University Student