Social Work Club will host ‘Not Asking For It’ sexual assault workshop

Students, faculty and staff will have the opportunity to learn more about sexual assault at the Principle Players meeting hosted by the Social Work Club.

The conference will focus on “Not Asking For It: A Workshop On Sexual Assault” with Brian Van Brunt as the keynote speaker.

Van Brunt has three sections throughout the day focusing on consent, bystander intervention and survivor presentation.  Van Brunt will go more into detail answering questions and talking about what it means to have consent, what consent is, ways to prevent sexual assault, how sexual assault happens, what to do if you see it, and the best way to respond to a friend telling you they have been assaulted.

Van Brunt joined the NCHERM Group as Senior Vice President in January 2013. He has a doctoral degree in counseling supervision and education from the University of Sarasota/Argosy and a master’s degree in counseling and psychological services from Salem State University.

Van Brunt is a regular speaker for academic conferences around the world, along with presenting dozens of workshops with the American College Counseling Association (ACCA), National Association of Forensic Counselors (NAFC), American College Personal Association (ACPA), Association of University College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD), Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA), and the European Congress on Violence in Clinical Psychiatry (OUD).

Along with giving presentations, Van Brunt has presented hundreds of online training seminars and classes. Well over 150,000 individuals, staff and faculty at universities and colleges across the country have utilized his trainings.  He has developed training modules on violence, mental health, and suicide prevention for Resident Advisors (RAs) and created a behind-closed-doors style card game for RAs called “RACE!”. He has also written textbook test banks and instructor guides for Pearson Education.

The workshop on Wednesday, Oct. 14 will begin with registration from 8-8:30 a.m. At 8:30 a.m., Jon Hansen, vice president of enrollment management, marketing and student services, will start the introductions, present the colors, and give a general overview of the day.  The theatre department will begin its first play from 9-9:15 a.m., which will be followed by a discussion and crowd interaction. The first presentation by Van Brunt about consent will begin at 9:30 a.m.  Following Van Brunt at 10 a.m., Sonja Dressel will talk about social media, and how it can be used for sexual assault. She is also talking about apps that can be used on campus to prevent sexual assault. At 10:30 a.m., representatives from the hospital will be speaking on what happens when you go to the hospital and say you have been sexually assaulted and the process once they are in the hospital. Lunch will be provided at 11-11:15 a.m.  CSC President Randy Rhine will be addressing the crowd from 11:15-11:30 a.m. At 11:30 a.m.-noon, the theatre department will be performing its second play along with a crowd discussion. At noon-1:30 p.m., Van Brunt will be presenting his second presentation on bystander intervention. From 1:30-1:45 p.m., Superintendent Caroline Winchester is coming to share her point of view on sexual assault. At 1:45-2:15 p.m., police will be coming to talk about the law enforcement side of sexual assault.  The theatre department will be performing its final play with the crowd discussion at 2:15-2:30 p.m.  Van Brunt will be giving his final presentation about survivors of sexual assault at 2:30-4 p.m. After the survivor presentation Hansen and the senior class will be closing the ceremony by thanking everyone and retiring the colors.