$29.9K Grant To Bucks Co. Community College To Combat Sexual Assault

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Bucks County Community College is one of 34 higher education institutions receiving an It's On Us PA grant to combat sexual violence on college campuses, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Friday.

The local college received an award of $29,911. The funds will go toward initiatives aligned with both the It's On Us PA campaign goals and a state act which requires all institutions to have clear, understandable written policy on sexual harassment and sexual violence.

Gov. Wolf launched the program in 2016, as part of a call to education leaders and commonwealth citizens to be part of the solution to sexual misconduct. This year, he allocated just shy of $1 million in grant funding.

“Pennsylvania’s colleges and universities must be a safe space for students to learn and grow without fear of violence, harassment, or abuse,” he said.“Each one of us has a responsibility to promote healthy relationships, and the It’s On Us PA grant program was created to provide pathways to trainings and resources that improve campus culture and engagement.”

Dekia Smith, interim Dean of Students at Bucks County Community College, said the school will develop an online student learning module on the college's policies and procedures around Title IX and gender-based misconduct — among other uses for the funding.

"[W]e plan to use these funds to develop, improve, or increase mechanisms for anonymous reporting and improve the institution’s capacity to collect data to meet federal and state reporting requirements," she wrote in an email to Patch. "We also want to improve institutional awareness and training by improving awareness and prevention education curricula across the campus which includes training for students, faculty, and staff."

The school will also create programming and events raising awareness of sexual violence and promoting the campus commitment to ending such violence.

"Participating in events like Wear Teal Day, which is part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (April 2022 and 2023) allows for students to learn more about the It’s On Us Pledge to action and raise awareness among the entire college community," Smith wrote.

Smith also said improving school response to sexual misconduct overall is a key priority in allocating this funding. This partly involves making sure decision-makers and Title IX offices keep up-to-date with the most recent policies for campus reporting and procedures.

"We would like to improve structures to make students more aware of the rights of survivors of sexual assault and to enhance awareness and utilization of off-campus resources for survivors of sexual assault," she wrote.

Since 2016, the Wolf Administration has awarded 184 It’s On Us PA grants totaling nearly $6 million to post-secondary institutions, including public and private two-year and four-year colleges and universities.

This fall, the governor also unveiled a four-bill package that will further strengthen protections for students and combat sexual assaults on campuses, including a ‘yes means yes’ law that requires all postsecondary institutions to have policies with clear standards of what is and is not consent; a bill to strengthen protections for victims of on-campus crime; a plan to teach middle and high school students to know and prevent dating violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment and stalking; and legislation that would create a task force to study sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking in grades 6-12 and postsecondary institutions.

The It’s On Us campaign is a national initiative to raise awareness about sexual assault; teaching participants that assault includes non-consensual sex, advising them on how to identify dangerous situations, empowering them to intervene, and urging them to create an environment of support for victims and survivors.

The It’s On Us PA campaign is an offshoot of the national It's On Us initiative to raise awareness around sexual assault. The pledge is available to take on the governor's website, affirming that those taking it “recognize that non-consensual sex is sexual assault, identify situations in which sexual assault may occur, intervene in situations where consent has not or cannot be given, and create an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported.”

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