DV/SA Advocacy and Prevention Honors Group, Sarah Zellmann

Dr. Kohlhaas
HON 450
16 November 2020
Portfolio
Cultural Competency:

Through cultural competency training, we have recognized that victims of sexual assault
and domestic violence come from various cultures and backgrounds. With these principles, we
have learned that we have to be understanding and sensitive to every person because we do not
know their background. Their story could be totally different from something that we have
experienced before, so we cannot judge a person based on their background or culture. These
principles have enhanced our project so we can best serve those in need. Just like our community
partner, Waypoint Services, we strive to be an understanding support system for the most
vulnerable, no matter what their cultural background is. From the seminar session with Sergio
Perez, we learned a lot about cultures and how each person is raised is going to be different. He
really emphasized that we have to acknowledge these differences in order to best serve our
community. This really opened all of our eyes and even helped us to notice stereotypes in our
own thinking. In order for us to help and understand the victims of sexual assault and domestic
violence, we have to first set aside our beliefs and opinions. It serves no good to the victims or
the community we are working with to judge them or force our opinions onto them. It is
important that we do what the clients want and what is going to best serve them.

In terms of our proposed solution, which again is our idea to propose a new form of
training and regulations about domestic violence and sexual assault on campus, cultural
competency is one of the core values. First, we made sure to interview students on Loras’s
campus in order to make sure we knew what they felt was most needed for new regulations.
Secondly, we are making sure that when we finish our first draft of our proposal that it will be
looked at by Waypoint Services, and now we are also hoping to have it looked at by Riverview
Center, an organization that helps victims of sexual assault in Iowa, in order to make sure that
the proposed changes are line up with what is needed by victims, as seen by experts on the
subject. All of this is in an attempt to make sure that what we are trying to do is best suited to
help as many people as possible, while not assuming that we know what is best for these groups.
Domestic violence and sexual assault are horrible things that affect everyone differently and if
we were to make our proposal simply based on what we think would be best for everyone then
we could make something that would either be not helpful or potentially harmful. With the help
of the students on campus and hopefully, multiple groups who specialize in what it is we are
trying to help prevent, we believe that our proposal will be the best possible system for those on
campus who may be at risk or may already be in need of some help.
Community-Based Learning:

The most important skill we gained as learners when working with a community member
is the ability to be flexible. As outsiders, and college students, it’s easy to believe we have the
answers to solve the problems and to know what’s best for others. Before we met with Waypoint,
we had a few ideas on what we could do for our project and for Waypoint, however, after
meeting with them and asking what they need, our project took a whole different shape.
Waypoint explained to us that hygiene items, such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, are in
constant need as women who are fleeing typically leave without being able to grab these items.
After hearing this, we realized that something as simple as hygiene products could be one of the
most beneficial things we could do for this organization. COVID-19 also posed challenges for us
to be flexible with our partners. With quarantine and people being required to stay inside more
often, domestic violence cases were on the rise and Waypoint was far busier. Naturally, our
project was put on hold as Waypoint shifted to serving their clients and gathering resources for
them. The pandemic has challenged our project and as a result, we have had to become
extremely flexible.

As for public dissemination, we are currently focused on Loras campus as COVID-19 has
challenged our plan to visit the local high schools. We are hoping to create and implement a
sexual assault and domestic violence education and training program that all students at Loras
College will have to participate in. This will serve the purpose of public dissemination to the
Loras Community by providing them with education about sexual assault and domestic violence,
as well as establishing a relationship between Loras College and Waypoint.

In regard to reciprocity, we have learned that a symbiotic relationship between our group
and the groups we are serving is the only way to benefit everyone. We have learned that there is
always give and take, but it is more important what you give. As mentioned, our plan for public
dissemination is to further train and educate Loras students about the issues of sexual assault and
domestic violence. We took from our peers, in the form of informal interviews, their opinions
about the current sexual assault prevention and education program at Loras. We invited them to
share their thoughts with us and asked them what they may like to see if/when the program is
updated that would make them feel safer. After taking this information from our peers we have
hope to give back to them by helping the administration improve the current program because it
would better prepare Loras students to encounter these situations. If more Loras students were
armed against this issue with knowledge and resources, we can minimize the issue of sexual
assault and violence on our own campus.

Academic Research:

In the initial stages of brainstorming topic ideas, our group established that there was an
overwhelming amount of domestic violence and sexual assault (DV/SA) cases happening in all
areas of our community. We also found there to be a lot of stigmas within our society about
domestic violence and sexual assault victims. More often than not our society blames the victim
for putting him/herself in a position to be abused. Our group decided that our community needed
to be educated on this topic and made aware of red flags or warning signs that prelude most
violent cases.

At the start of our project, we were interested only in the numbers and statistics involving
domestic violence victims. However, our partnership with Waypoint, the Cultural Competency
training within the Honors Program, and the altered version of Waypoint’s advocacy training we
received, we realized we needed to take a more culturally aware approach to our research. We
adjusted our focus to how we could get the message out to the public on how and why domestic
violence and sexual assaults are an issue and we especially focused on what actions should be
taken concerning them. Various cultures have different views as to what defines domestic
violence and even sexual assault, so finding a way to get it across the board that certain actions
are unacceptable is a massive challenge for our group. Once we gained a better perspective we
felt better equipped to tackle this obstacle.

Our research through community-based learning is the most important thing to use for
guiding our research. Given the fact that our topic is such a universal problem that is also at the
same time something that is typically taboo to talk about, it is extremely necessary for our
community partner to give us some guidance as to what is most important to research in order to
help us achieve our goals.

Our first goal involved getting hygiene kit drives started in High Schools. So we began
some general research on the local high schools and their administration. We also took into
consideration the best dates for the drives and how they would correlate with our topic.
Following up on our group’s research methods in regard to our proposal to administration, we
conducted informal interviews with several student-athletes around campus. Our method of
framing our research to those students was different than how we plan on framing our research to
our Loras Athletic Director and Loras Dean of Students. To the students, we informed them of
our purpose, the current sexual assault awareness program at Loras, and then invited them to
share their opinions free of judgment. With them, it was important we established trust and that
each student did not feel pressured in any way so that they would share their true feelings with
us. When framing our information to the Athletic Director and Dean of Students, we are going to
be much more formal. We are going to provide a lot of information, resources, and the potential
benefits of our suggested implementation.