UVic offers students anti-violence support
The most common time when people experience sexualized violence is when they are 18–26 years old, according to the Anti-Violence Project (AVP), UVic’s on-campus sexual assault center.
That’s why staff members at AVP want Camosun students to know that their services are available to them as well.
In fact, their services are available to anyone in the community who’s affected by sexualized violence, according to Elizabeth Morrison, co-coordinator at AVP.
AVP offers confidential, peer-based counselling and support to anyone who has experienced sexual violence or knows someone who has.
“We get a lot of people who come in and say their girlfriend, or boyfriend, or partner has experienced something and they don’t know what to do, or they’re feeling like they need someone to talk to,” says Morrison.
The Anti-Violence Project started in 1995 under the name Open UVic Resource Sexual Assault Centre (OUR-SAC).
In 2004, OUR-SAC became the Anti-Violence Project in order to make support, education, and advocacy services more accessible to survivors of all forms of violence.
Over the years, AVP has offered support to many survivors of sexualized violence.
Each year they expand to educate the community on issues surrounding violence through workshops and events.
“We do prevention, education, and outreach, but then we also provide drop-in, one-to-one support,” says Morrison.
AVP advocates peer-based counselling, which means that support is offered by a trained volunteer, who’s usually either a student from UVic or Camosun, or a community member.
“This is a place where you can come and talk to somebody, and also know that the person you are talking to is a peer,” says Morrison. “All of our volunteers do a 60-hour training in the fall. We teach communication skills and teach them about peer-based counselling. They learn all about sexualized violence and how to provide support.”
AVP offers workshops and events to bring their message to the community.
“We do a lot of advocacy work and we provide a lot of different outreach and education workshops, including sex toys and sex education,” says Morrison.
Morrison says it’s important to offer information on how to make informed decisions regarding sex and how to make consensual sex fun.
“If you teach people how to have really awesome, fantastic sex, people often feel like they’re much more empowered and less likely to get into situations where they feel that their boundaries are violated,” says Morrison.
They also offer a resource library to anyone who has questions about issues relating to sexualized violence.
AVP’s main focus is letting people know they exist and anyone who feels they need their services can access them.
“If somebody gets support, then the chances of having really harmful stress responses down the road is drastically reduced,” says Morrison. “That’s what we are here to provide.”
Although AVP is a small office located in the basement of the student union building at UVic, it’s a welcoming space with comfy couches.
Camosun students who want to access AVP services are welcome to drop in during their office hours (which are 9 am to 4 pm, Monday to Friday).
Morrison acknowledges that the distance between campuses may be a challenge.
“Because people are coming from further away, they might not necessarily want to drop in, so they can make an appointment,” says Morrison.
Students can visit the AVP website at uvss.uvic.ca/avp or call them at 250–472–4388.**
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