By Autumn Light ’20
Staff Writer

As a part of LVC’s Public Safety department, the Community Response for Everyone’s Wellbeing (C.R.E.W.) bystander intervention program trains students and faculty how to safely and effectively intervene in potentially bad situations around campus; they also aim to create a community that does not tolerate power based-personal violence (PBPV) campus-wide.

“That solid block of time was difficult for many to manage within their workload and could be tiring for both trainers and participants,” Sally Clark, chair of C.R.E.W. and assistant professor of English, said. “Breaking the training into two two-hour sessions provides much greater flexibility for scheduling and attendance.”

In previous years, their training was held in a single session that lasted four hours on the weekends, and many students who wanted to participate could not make the trainings. This semester, C.R.E.W. has tested out split training sessions. This method allows students and faculty to attend two separate two-hour training sessions during the week.

“The first session provides a lot of knowledge about how to identify concerning behaviors and understanding how bystanders can make a difference in reducing PBPV,” Clark said. “The second session provides opportunities to explore methods and skills to use, both actively and proactively, to not only reduce violence but also to build norms within our campus community that will unify us in maintaining a safe campus.”

Since the split training sessions are easier on all involved, C.R.E.W. aims to continue splitting their training sessions until at least next semester.

“While dividing the training can result in some people missing the second session (required for certification), our experience so far has been overwhelmingly positive,” Clark said.

Using the split training method, C.R.E.W. has trained nearly 100 students so far this semester and more are coming up. C.R.E.W.’s final pair of training sessions for this semester will be on Tuesday, Nov. 12 (session 1) and Tuesday, Nov. 19 (session 2). Faculty and students who are interested in these trainings must sign up on Redbook, as seats are limited.

Any groups interested in being trained (in a single session or in two separate sessions) can do so by contacting Clark at sclark@lvc.edu.