The Green Dot Program
By: Neveah Schreiber
After years of putting everything on a seemingly endless halt, the University of Sioux Falls is beginning to bring more opportunities to campus. The Green Dot Program is a new program that focuses on intervention, advocacy, and awareness with a mission, according to the Alteristic website, to find “…common threads across social issues, including self-directed harm, interpersonal violence, substance abuse, bullying, and harassment.” (For more information on this program, go to the Alteristic dot org website and select Services from the navigation bar.)
The Green Dot Program puts an emphasis on “bystander intervention strategies focusing on sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, and similar instances. The purpose is to equip people to be active bystanders,” says Devin Wolthuizen, the Resident Director of Kroske, Burgess, and Mary Collier Baker Hall, Coordinator of Resident Activities, and Certified Green Dot Instructor. Allan Idjao, Associate Director of Student Life and Multicultural Student Programs, says these instances are otherwise known as “red dots.” Idjao says, “this program is for training and educating students on how to assess these red dots, and take action towards turning them green.”
From the years 2010-2013, there was a study put in place across three campuses, one of which was implementing the Green Dot College Prevention Program, and the other two practicing no bystander intervention. According to the study summary on the Alteristic website, the researchers found that the campus practicing bystander intervention, had lower violence rates, specifically sexual victimization, sexual harassment, stalking, and psychological dating violence, than the other two campuses. Green Dot is able to achieve these goals, according to Alteristic,”…by inspiring hope for change, providing realistic tools to act, and helping overcome personal, relational, and cultural barriers.”
The University of Sioux Falls’ goal is to achieve this same impact by “starting with students. We are holding training opportunities to educate students on how to be active bystanders,” says Idjao. Wolthuizen also says, “We are hoping to expand on these groups of students and bring awareness to hopefully form an organization type community to continue outreach. USF bringing Green Dot to campus is one of many steps towards bringing attention to these circumstances, acknowledging their happenings and trying to get ahead of the problem,” says Wolthuizen. Idjao says, “If you see something, say something. I know it sounds cliche, but you could be saving someone’s life.”
If you want to become more educated on this program and want to know how to help, reach out to Devin Wolthuizen or Allan Idjao via email or a stop into the Student Life Offices in the McDonald’s Center.
