National Domestic Violence Summit 2007
If you have a child in college, here are a few safety tips you can pass along to them to increase their privacy and safety online:
- If you use a social networking, online dating or alumni site, set your profile for "private." This will reduce the chance of an abuser or online stalker gaining access to your address, phone number or other personal information.
- Go to an online search engine such as Google or Yahoo and do a search on your name to find out if your personal information appears on any Web site. If so, contact the provider and ask that it be removed.
- Trust your instincts. If you suspect an abuser knows too much about you, it is likely that he or she is monitoring your e-mail or phone.
The tips came out of the Verizon Foundation's 2nd Annual Domestic Violence Awareness Summit, which was held at State College, PA in conjunction with Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University, the University of Kentucky and NNEDV.
"Domestic violence is a societal problem that affects every community, even college campuses,” said Patrick Gaston, president of the Verizon Foundation. "We're hopeful that the tools and programs showcased at our Domestic Violence Awareness Summit will prove to be valuable resources for college and university leaders across the country to help educate students, faculty and the public about the issue and improve response.”
Cindy Southworth, chief technologist of the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) and founder and director of the organization's Safety Net Project, presented the safety tips for college students during her session at the summit.
"The statistics are staggering: Up to 25 percent of women will be assaulted during their college career,” Southworth said. "Since students are so tech-savvy, we want to harness technology to both educate victims and educate the entire community about what they can do if they fear a friend or acquaintance is in danger.”
Southworth's tipsheet, "Tech Savvy Students: Choosing who gets to see your info,” is free and available online.
The summit also highlighted domestic violence awareness, prevention and training programs that are funded by the Verizon Foundation. Each is designed to provide a template for other universities and organizations to follow. The programs include:
- Workplace Responses to Domestic Violence - A comprehensive training program designed by Penn State University for employees and students in partnership with the Centre County Women's Resource Center. The program includes a Web-based training component and a documentary, produced by Penn State Public Broadcasting, which tells the story of a 2001 domestic violence homicide case.
- Violence Against Women Continuing Education Program - A two-year program at Rutgers University to train professionals to identify domestic violence victims and teach appropriate techniques to intervene and assist the victim. The goal of the program is to create an interactive, Web-based curriculum that can be used by universities across the country.
- Answers Through Research - An innovative program at the University of Kentucky that will include research in five specific areas to create a comprehensive picture of the affects of domestic violence. Study areas are: violence against women, focused on women's health; women's mental health; children who witness violence; race, ethnicity and culture; and offender studies.
To learn more about the issue of domestic violence and university programs to address the problem, the summit can be viewed in its entirety at: http://live.libraries.psu.edu/mediasite/Catalog/ For more information on the foundation, visit www.verizon.com/foundation
