Penn State’s Gender Equity Center supports students who have been impacted by sexual violence, relationship violence, stalking, harassment, and other campus climate issues. In addition, the office works to educate the campus community about Gender Equity issues and to provide workshops and resources for the prevention of sexual violence.
Advocacy and Support Services
Gender Equity Center staff provide education, advocacy, referrals, and crisis intervention/support counseling for victim survivors. All services are free and confidential.
The kindness and empathy that I received from the staff as well as their willingness to advocate for me in other spaces on campus [was helpful].
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Prevention Education and Violence Intervention Work
The Gender Equity Center works to eliminate power-based interpersonal violence from our communities, stopping the violence before it starts. The foundation of this prevention work is proactive intervention and education. Our office offers a robust course of workshops and educational sessions for students, faculty, and staff to achieve an intentional intersectional, proactive model of prevention. Our extensive offerings are theory-driven and evidenced-based. Request a workshop for your class, club, or organization today as well as learn about the ongoing programming and featured events equipping the Penn State community to advocate for change and eliminate violence from our community.
Students can get involved through our peer education groups! The Gender Equity Center coordinates two peer education groups, which meet weekly, plan events throughout the year, and are trained to provide educational programming on topics like sexual assault, relationship violence, stalking, gender stereotypes, and more.
I liked that [the workshop] was given in a very approachable way because often times these types of presentations are very aggressive to try and scare us when really we need to be welcomed into discussions to actually get anything out of it.
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Gender Equity's Mission and Vision
The mission of the Gender Equity Center is to
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Support all students in their relationships, especially those who have been impacted by sexual violence, relationship violence, stalking, harassment and other campus climate issues through Advocacy, Crisis Intervention/Support and Empowerment
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Educate the Penn State community by promoting awareness, building support for survivors and conducting educational programs and events on consent, violence prevention, bystander intervention and healthy relationships.
Vision
The vision of the Gender Equity Center is to create a campus culture where all students feel safe, supported, valued, and respected through access to a full range of services. We believe everyone deserves healthy relationships that are built on respect and consent, should have positive experiences, and learn life skills that enable them to be successful and achieve their goals at Penn State and in the world.
