PACT - Department of Justice Grant

Stetson expands efforts to ensure the safety of their students when it comes to Domestic/ Dating Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking (DVSAS) Prevention from a nearly $400,000 grant from the Department of Justice. Transformational work has been happening on the student, faculty and staff levels led by Sara Smith-Paez director of the Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking Prevention Grant at Stetson. In October 2020, Stetson was awarded a $296,000 grant to reduce Domestic/Dating Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking on College Campus from the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office on Violence Against Women. In 2023, they were awarded a second grant cycle of $399,837. A cornerstone of this 3-year grant from the DOJ has been establishing and maintaining a university-wide Collaborative Community Response Team (CCRT) that meets regularly to plan how to advance the goals of the grant and create a culture of consent on campus where the values of safety, respect, gender equity, bystander intervention and wellness are upheld. Students, faculty, staff, and community partners are on the CCRT. The CCRT contains committees that focus on the four main grant areas; comprehensive prevention, law enforcement, student conduct, and victim services.

This grant has also allowed Stetson to expand its collaborations with off-campus partners including the Family Life Center and Daytona Domestic Abuse Council. Another foundational goal of the grant is to support how Stetson’s Public Safety officers handle dynamic situations and respond to student needs. Because of the grant, Public Safety has added trainings on conflict de-escalation, trauma-informed response to disclosure, stalking, and more!

The Peer Advisory Council on Title IX (PACT) was founded in 2018 by student activists and supportive staff and has significantly grown under the grant to become a peer education and outreach team. PACT continuously increases knowledge on DVSAS topics, supporting survivors, and bystander efficacy among the student body. PACT Program Leads go through rigorous and continuous training to equip them to talk to their peers about DVSAS, and the hard work pays off. From 2021 to 2023 Students who say they have a great deal of knowledge on stalking increased from 37.3% to 56%; students who say they have a great deal of knowledge on healthy vs unhealthy relationships increased from 45.8% to 63%; Students who say they have a great deal of knowledge on supporting sexual assault survivors has increased from 42.8% to 55%, and students who say they have a great deal of knowledge on sexual assault has increased from 54.9% to 59%.