Green Dot

The Green Dot bystander intervention program invites all of us - students, faculty, and staff - to recognize the role we play in preventing sexual and relationship violence on our campus. While nobody has to do everything, everybody can do something to make our campus safer. 

Imagine our campus covered in red dots. A red dot represents an act of power-based personal violence - in other words, a choice someone makes to use their words or behaviors to hurt someone else. A red dot could be:

• The moment it takes to hit someone
• Forcing a sexual act as part of hazing or initiation
• The choice to have sex with someone without their consent
• Demanding sexual favors in exchange for a grade or promotion
• Using words to humiliate, threaten, or coerce someone
• Showing up unwanted outside of someone’s classroom, office, or car

When a lot of red dots add up, we end up with campuses where too many students and colleagues are getting hurt.

Now imagine a single green dot in the middle of all those red dots. A green dot is a small moment when someone makes the choice to use their words or behaviors to reduce the likelihood that the next red dot shows up - it’s a small intervention that interrupts an instance of power-based personal violence. 

A green dot doesn’t have to be a big thing. It can be a small action like pulling a friend out of a high-risk situation or having a conversation with a teammate about how important this issue is. It’s checking on a friend you’re worried about, posting a bystander video online, or bringing a training to your student organization. A green dot is simply your individual choice at any given moment to make our campus safer. 

When the number of green dots on our campus outnumbers the red dots, we will begin to reset our campus norms so that anyone who sets foot on our campus knows that at EMU, power-based personal violence is not okay, and everyone is expected to do their part to prevent it. 

So, the only question that remains is: what’s your green dot?

Trainings are available for students, faculty, and staff. To learn more, get involved, schedule a training for your club/org, or attend a training, contact us at safertogether@emu.edu

This project was supported by grant 2017-WA-AX-0022 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, US Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.