Student Ally

Very happy to announce Student Ally's partnership with the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities launched this week. If you're a California school looking to improve student safety, wellness, and Title IX compliance, reach out to learn about special discounts and benefits available to you. #TitleIX #studentsafety #metoo #metoomovement #sexualassault #sexualassaultprevention #compliance #partnership #prevention #safety #studentwellness #wellness #AICCU #California

🎼 "NOBODY'S RIGHT, IF EVERYBODY'S WRONG." - Buffalo Springfield Title IX departments never asked to be administrative law specialists, to parse through injunctions or to wait for Supreme Court guidance on how to do their jobs. But that's where we are...and everybody loses...our students most of all. THE "BARE MINIMUM" ISN'T THE GOAL? While we all wait for the government to tell us what Title IX requires, we need to take a step back and remember that Title IX regulations are a FLOOR not a CEILING. Meaning that there's nothing preventing us from affording more protections for students, except our belief that the goal is simply to "meet compliance." FALSE DICHOTOMY: DUE PROCESS vs. SURVIVOR SUPPORT The Title IX debate goes something like....Republicans want due process protections to make sure accused students get a fair shake - hearings, cross-examination, and so on. And democrats want more support for survivors - better reporting, less retraumatizing processes, etc... Our politicians treat these like opposing priorities. THEY'RE NOT, and we need to stop treating them like they are. Building the tools to help schools do both is what Student Ally, and me personally, have been working on for nearly a decade. EMBRACE THE "WIN/WIN" - DELIVER FOR EVERYONE Improved reporting helps survivors. Improved compliance tech ensures fairness for respondents. Improved training helps prevention, which helps everyone. Evidence preservation tech helps survivors support their claims, and it also helps respondents support their defense. Integrated safety tech helps prevention and deterrence, which means safer campuses and communities. Put it all together and schools can improve results for everyone, while reducing costs, and avoiding liabilities. Drop a like or a comment if you're interested in seeing how we do it. #safety #prevention #titleIX #riskmitigation #liability #compliance #sexualassault #sexualassaultprevention #studentally #metoo #metoomovement https://lnkd.in/e34XwF-a

THE COST OF RESTORING TRUST Sophocles said, "Trust dies, but mistrust blossoms." 2400 years later, that sentiment holds true. California is working hard to restore the trust of students and staff alike, but it won't come quick and it won't come cheap. THE #1 WAY TO REBUILD TRUST During studies on trust, researchers found that the most effective way to earn someone's trust is to ask them to help you. The least effective way is to ask them to trust you. CALIFORNIA'S MISSED OPPORTUNITY 2 million students attend California's public colleges and universities. Properly resourced, that's 2 MILLION ALLIES to work alongside administrators. That's 2 million allies working to create safer campuses. 2 million allies build stronger communities from the ground up. And 2 million allies spearheading a cultural shift towards respect for boundaries and consent. WORK "WITH" NOT "FOR" While the institutional changes California is implementing are necessary, they rely on an outdated model - one in which a handful of staff (likely in the hundreds) work tirelessly to solve a problem for millions of students. If you'd like to learn how to turn every student into an ALLY. If you'd like to "build" trust rather than having to "restore" it, and work with students rather than for them...reach out to Student Ally for a demo. #titleix #titleixtech #insurtech #liabilities #metoo #metoomovement #prevention #sexualassault #studentally #sexualassaultprevention #safety #highereducation #highered #leadership #California https://lnkd.in/e4CMvvwj

STUDENT ALLY DEVELOPING NEW TRAINING TO PREVENT MEDICAL ASSAULTS - SCHOOL'S BIGGEST LIABILITY 📈 A BIG PROBLEM DRIVING BIG LIABILITIES! Over the last several years, prominent figures like Connie Chung and Evelyn Yang have come forward with stories of assault by medical providers. While these assaults don't get the same attention as the stereotypical "guy jumping out of the bushes," they are (in fact) the BIGGEST liability schools face. In just the last 5 years, colleges and universities have paid BILLIONS to survivors of assaults by school physicians. This is a BIG problem, and Student Ally is partnering with Women's Advocacy Initiative to fix it. NEW TRAINING TO BE ADDED TO STUDENT ALLY's EXISTING PLATFORM Predator doctors often victimize HUNDREDS of patients before they're caught. Why that is could be a whole article on its own, but teaching students how to recognize when a medical exam crosses the line, how to advocate for themselves, how to avoid being bullied or manipulated into silence, and how to engage leadership early so that the abuse doesn't go on to affect others IS KEY. Training on these issues should be part of students' Title IX and NCAA programs. And Student Ally, in partnership with Women's Advocacy Initiative and the networks of trauma-informed physicians they've built, is going to make sure it is. Likewise, staff training through Student Ally will also incorporate how to listen, receive, and elevate these reports. ASKING FOR INPUT FROM MY NEWTORK! If there's anything you think should be included or addressed in this training, PLEASE drop it in the comments or a private message (if more appropriate). As experts in this field who see these issues every day, your input is the most valuable tool we have in building the solutions that students and schools need. #TitleIX #insurance #UnitedEducators #liability #prevention #NCAA #athletics #metoo #metoomovement #studentally https://lnkd.in/eDBcEuwa

As funding challenges loom, colleges and universities need to start looking for innovative approaches to addressing sexual violence in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. Fortunately, you don't have to do it alone! A STITCH IN TIME.... Historically, the vast vast majority of funding around sexual violence has gone to response. Hotlines for survivors, medical services, legal support, mental health care, and so on. And while these services are INCREDIBLY important and necessary, they highlight the fundamental flaw of our approach. The best, cheapest, and easiest way to support survivors of sexual violence is to PREVENT them from becoming survivors in the first place. PREVENTION IS COMPLICATED....UNTIL NOW Preventing assaults has, up until now, been more complicated than responding to them. That's because prevention requires: ➡ Improved TRAINING & AWARENESS for both would-be victims and would-be assailants. ➡ More accessible SAFETY RESOURCES to help students to be proactive on an individual and community basis. ➡ Improved REPORTING SYSTEMS, to intervene earlier so repeat offenders (who commit the majority of assaults) don't continue to victimize ➡ Improved EVIDENCE COLLECTION to increase reporting and resolution, which in turn, increases deterrence. ➡ And perhaps most importantly, it requires some way to COORDINATE AND MANAGE all of these things so that they're easy to deliver for staff and easy to access for students. WE HAVE TO BUILD THE THINGS WE WISHED EXISTED. AND WE DID! Student Ally is the market's first end-to-end student safety and Title IX compliance platform - designed in partnership with colleges, students, parents, Title IX offices, and experts across multiple disciplines. With Student Ally, you don't need a huge budget or even a huge staff. All you need to do is take 4 minutes to watch the overview HERE (https://lnkd.in/e2_buy3x) or contact me at [email protected] for a demo or to get started. https://lnkd.in/efKbmBWe #titleix #safety #violenceagainstwomen #prevention #highereducation #highered #technology #edtech #sexualassault #metoo #metoomovement #sexualassaultprevention

KUDOS to University of Louisiana Monroe and their Title IX Coordinator Amanda Gill for addressing this important topic. Many students who find themselves in unhealthy relationships missed early warning signs that their partner was developing abusive tendencies. Whether at work, at school, or in a student's personal life, the creation of a power imbalance between someone and their partner is a HUGE RED FLAG. Whatever Title IX training programs you're deploying for students this fall, make sure they include instruction on how to recognize and avoid power imbalances. Early education is the most effective tool for preventing abuse. If you're looking for more engaging, modern, and impactful training, Student Ally has programs on Title IX, consent, communication, alcohol/drug use, bystander intervention, and trauma. And yes....we specifically address power imbalances as one of the common coercive tactics abusive partners employ. There are still openings for Fall 2024 training deployment. If you're interested, contact me at [email protected] to learn more and secure a spot. https://lnkd.in/eeFr8KRr

HOW TO EXPAND YOUR TITLE IX STAFF - INSTANTLY! The biggest mistake in addressing sexual violence has been treating students like a problem to be solved. When the vast majority of assaults are committed by a small minority of repeat offenders, students aren't a problem to be solved. They are a resource to be ACTIVATED! The solution isn't 1 administrator trying to solve a problem for a community of 10,000. The solution is 10,001 ALLIES working together as to solve a problem for their community. This is what Student Ally was built to do. With Student Ally, every student has the tools to be an ALLY - on campus, off campus, everywhere they go. I've never met a Title IX coordinator who didn't need at least "another set of hands." Imagine 1,000...2,000...10,000 new team members! It's not science-fiction, it's science now. I'd love the opportunity to show you how. [email protected] #highereducation #metoo #metoomovement #sexualassault #sexualassaultprevention #prevention #safety #students #college #university #titleix

WHAT 300 MILLION VICTIMS OF ONLINE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION MEANS FOR TITLE IX Unless you've been living under a rock, the internet is a cesspool. In 2023 alone, social media companies received over 36 million reports of childhood online sexual exploitation - 1 every second. And whether we like it or not, the reality is that kids these days grow up online. Girls as young as 11 and 12 grow up fending off online solicitations. Boys grow up on a steady diet of hypersexualized content that monetizes young women for clicks. And while not every child will become either a victim or a predator, every child grows up surrounded by them - in an online environment that normalizes this behavior. TITLE IX - WHY HAVEN'T YOU FIXED THIS?!!! Every fall, our failure as a society to solve this problem crashes into the shores of colleges and universities, and it becomes "their problem" to solve. Millions of students with deep misunderstandings of sexual dynamics all of a sudden find themselves in a real-world environment they can't "block" or "unsubscribe" to. The majority of the sexual assaults at colleges and universities will happen in those first few weeks on campus....and we'll blame colleges. "NEVER KNEW A FIRST KISS WITHOUT HAVING WATCHED PORNHUB" Freya India recently wrote a piece for "Voices of Gen Z" and made an observation that all of us in Title IX and higher education need to be thinking about: "Most of us in Gen Z were given phones and tablets so early that we barely remember life before them. [We] never knew falling in love without swiping and subscription models. We never knew having a first kiss without having watched PornHub first. We never knew flirting and romance before it became sending DMs or reacting to Snapchat stories with flame emojis. [W]e never felt the freedom to grow up clumsily; to be young and dumb and make stupid mistakes without fear of it being posted online....We never knew a childhood spent chasing experiences and risks and independence instead of chasing stupid likes on a screen...." PREVENTION HAS TO START SOONER I don't know all the answers to how we solve this, but I do know that our failure to connect with teens (and even pre-teens) about healthy dating and sexual dynamics IS NOT WORKING. We've been afraid to have the "uncomfortable conversation" early enough in students childhood, and in doing so we've created a vacuum that THE INTERNET has filled. By the time they graduate college, 1 in 4 students will have been victims of sexual assault. We can't wait until freshmen year of college to teach students healthy relationship dynamics, and we can't keep blaming (and regulating) Title IX offices as if this problem just sprung into existence on their watch. #titleIX #supportTitleIX #highereducation #sexualassaultprevention #metoo https://lnkd.in/eTMMagXQ

DISCOURAGING TITLE IX REPORTS - WHAT SCHOOLS NEED TO KNOW There is a long and sordid history of schools discouraging survivors from coming forward and filing Title IX complaints. As an industry, we've come a long way since Title IX was passed in 1972, but old habits die hard - and this matter involving Brown University is a teaching moment regarding how faculty training needs to be improved ahead of the August 1 deadline for new Title IX Compliance. "LET'S JUST RESOLVE THIS INTERNALLY..." Pressuring survivors to "just work things out informally" was a common tactic employed by schools for decades. The issue became so bad that the Dept. of Ed. essentially prohibited schools from even attempting to use informal resolution for Title IX claims. That prohibition was lifted in 2017, and while the Biden Administration decided that informal resolution could continue, they took direct aim at cultures where filing Title IX complaints is discouraged. One of the tactics the Dept. of Ed. specifically warns of is faculty members actively discouraging survivors from reporting - exactly what one Brown University employee asserts happened to her in 2023. FACULTY TRAINING OBLIGATIONS & NEW LIABILITIES After being sexually assaulted by another employee in the campus lab, the Complainant alleges her supervisor (1) discouraged her from filing a Title IX Complaint, (2) encouraged her to resolve it internally, and (3) characterized the events as a "misunderstanding" to the Complainant and other lab employees. This attempt backfired. The Complainant not only filed a complaint against her assailant, she filed additional Title IX complaints against her supervisor and 2 other lab employees. Beginning August 1, faculty will BE REQUIRED to report Title IX incidents to the Title IX Coordinator. But the new regs don't stop there, and efforts to discourage reporting (even implicitly) may create dual liabilities. Schools may be responsible for both their employee's failure to comply with the mandatory reporting obligation, as well as for the school's failure to address and remedy the potential cultural/community environment where survivors are pressured against reporting. BEST PRACTICES MOVING FORWARD If you track the news and reporters like I do, you'll find no shortage of cautionary tales. Schools needs to recognize that there is only ONE WAY to deal with Title IX issues - proactively, in good faith, and with transparency. We will solve this issue. But we can only do it together, with schools and students collaborating as equal partners in the process. #highered #highereducation #titleix #liability #leadership #higheredleadership #studentally #metoo #metoomovement #sexualassault #sexualassaultprevention #sexualassaultawareness #SAAM #studentlife