Course Syllabus - Leslie Simon

IDST 55: Ending Sexual Violence: Peer Education

Course Description:

The course provides strategies for promoting healthy sexual relationships by teaching ways to prevent violence, specifically battery and rape. It also offers skills for facilitating attitude and behavior change among other students. Along with selected readings and a volunteer component, a variety of peer education activities (special events, campus-wide visibility projects, and classroom presentations) form the core content of the course.

Link to Project SURVIVE:

• Project SURVIVE, the City College of San Francisco sexual violence prevention program, focuses on preventing rape and battery in relationships. Each year the program offers 120 classroom presentations to students at City College. Trained peer educators facilitate these presentations. By enrolling in IDST 55, you become eligible to apply for one of these positions. We pay students $11.50/hour for up to 30 hours a semester. In order to qualify for this position, you must have either already taken IDST 54 ("The Politics of Sexual Violence") or enroll in it during Fall 2002. You must also make a commitment to return as a student enrolled in at least 6 units for Fall 02-Spring 03 to qualify for the lab aide money. Otherwise, you may work as a volunteer. Whether or not you continue on as a Project SURVIVE peer educator, the course will be invaluable to you in social service, health education, and public speaking jobs.
  
  
• One of the major requirements of the course is that you conduct one Project SURVIVE presentation with a partner from the class. I will be there for back-up, and there may also be a Project SURVIVE peer educator for additional back-up. As you can see, IDST 55 serves as a kind of laboratory for Project SURVIVE. When you give your required classroom presentations, you will be representing the program. For this reason, it is important that you understand its philosophy and follow programmatic guidelines.

Project SURVIVE Philosophy:

• Although Project SURVIVE is based on feminist principles that identify a male dominant culture as one of the major contributing factors to all forms of sexual violence, it does not categorize all men as bad and all women as good. Whenever any one of us possesses a certain amount of power, we can abuse it. We know, for example, that some mothers abuse their children. On the other hand, we strongly believe that all men must take responsibility for their role in the perpetuation of a culture that condones rape and battery.
  
  
• As a feminist program, Project SURVIVE is dedicated to the empowerment of all women.
  
  
• Project SURVIVE recognizes and addresses the problem of violence in same sex relationships.
  
  
• Project SURVIVE is committed to dismantling the race and class stereotypes that have been associated with sexual violence.
  
  
• Project SURVIVE recognizes that abuses of power are related. We believe that the struggles to stop violence against people of color, Jews and Arabs, gays and lesbians, poor people, children and elders, disabled people, as well as violence against all women, are connected.
  
  
• Although Project SURVIVE advocates physical resistance to violence--when appropriate--and encourages everyone to take self-defense classes, it does not advocate the use of weapons. If an audience asks you if you recommend using a gun as a form of self-defense, it's important to explain Project SURVIVE's philosophy first, but you are welcome to discuss your own personal philosophy if it diverges from the program's self-defense principles.

Please be aware:

The course subject matter may trigger painful responses, especially if you are a survivor of sexual abuse. Although my intention is that the classroom will be as safe a place as possible, since this is an academic course, we will be limited in how much time we can spend on personal stories. Lori Wong, a psychotherapist at the Student Health Center is available to help you. Call her at 239-3149.

Reading Texts:

• I Never Called It Rape: The Ms. Report on Recognizing, Fighting and Surviving Date and Acquaintance Rape (INCIR) by Robin Warshaw
• Men's Work: How to Stop the Violence that Tears Our Lives Apart (MW) by Paul Kivel
• You Can Be Free: An Easy-to-Read Handbook for Abused Women (YCBF) by Ginny NiCarthy and Sue Davidson

Course Requirements:

• Read all assignments
• Write a scenario for a date rape role play
• Mid-Term Exam (I.D. and short essay questions based on readings)
• Prepare and facilitate an in-class role play or an in-class discussion
• Volunteer for 15 hours in one of three outside agencies with a working group** (keep a time log, a reflection journal, and write a 3-page typed evaluation of volunteer work)
• Plan and participate in a campus-wide visibility campaign for rape awareness month, with a working group** (3-4 hours required)
• Give a Project SURVIVE classroom presentation (at CCSF or local high school) with a partner**
• Compile a personal resource and presentation manual
• Final Exam (ID and longer essay question [problem solving hypothetical peer ed situations])

**Please note that you will need to meet with each other outside of class to fulfill these requirements.

Attendance Policy:

Class attendance is extremely important because of the laboratory nature of the course. This is a hands-on course, so if you miss a class, you miss a lot. If you must miss a class, please call me before or immediately afterward to obtain an excused absence. After three unexcused absences, you may be dropped from the class.

Grading Guidelines and Due Dates:

90-100=A; 80-89=B; 70-79=C; 60-69=D; 59 or below=F

Normal weekly reading assignment is about 60-75 pages. High=higher than average reading assignment; Low=lower than average reading assignment

Introductions
Ground Rules
Sexual Health Educator Certificate

Gender Roles and Interpersonal Violence (Normal)
MW (3-61); INCIR (48-64)
Distribution of ESV Guidelines; Review Guideline I (Vol Proj)
Sign-up for Volunteer Project
Ground Rules

Systems of Male Dominant Power
YCBF (11-17); MW (77-129) (Normal)
Review Guideline II (Role Play/Discussion)

Systems of Male Dominant Power (cont'd)
INCIR (xi-xxvi; 1-9; 35-47; 83-98) (Normal)
Video: Tough Guise
Handout: Power Talk/Power Source Inventory

Self-Defense Workshop with Janet Gee
Interlocking Systems of Oppression (Low)
MW (62-74; 205-220)
Review Guideline III (Rape Awareness Activities)

Sign up for Rape Awareness Month Activity
Video: A Different World
Project SURVIVE Presentation I with peer educators
Role Play Scenarios Due

Forms of Abuse: Battery (Low)
YCBF (1-10; 97-108); Handout: The Cycle of Violence
Meet in Cloud 405 after the break
Video: To Ensure Domestic Tranquillity
Rape Awareness Month Activity in-class planning

Forms of Abuse: Date Rape (Low)
INCIR (11-34; 99-126)
Video: When a Kiss Is Not Just a Kiss
Sign up for Role Play or Discussion on Selected Topic
Review for Mid-term Exam [Forms of Abuse]

Mid-term Exam [Forms of Abuse]
Intervention: Battery
YCBF (18-96; 109-111); MW (133-175) (High-interactive in-class reading)

Intervention: Rape
INCIR ( 65-82; 127-150; 180-188) (Normal)
Handout: Rape Trauma Syndrome
Review Guideline IV (Presentation Techniques)

NO CLASS--SPRING BREAK

Facilitated Role Plays/Discussions
Prevention: Battery (Normal)
MW (177-204; 221-262)
Review Guideline V (Resource Manual)
Sign up for Project SURVIVE presentations

Facilitated Role Plays/Discussions
Prevention: Rape (Normal)
INCIR (151-179; 189-210)

Project SURVIVE Presentation II with peer educators
Presentation Techniques--strategies, protocol , and script
Project SURVIVE rehearsals

Personal Resource Manual Workshop
Project SURVIVE rehearsals

Project SURVIVE rehearsals
Volunteer Log/Journal/Evaluation Paper Due
Active Listening Skills

Project SURVIVE rehearsals
Rape Awareness Month Activity Self-Evaluation Due
Personal Resource Manual Due

Final Exam Review [Intervention and Prevention]
Project SAFE Presentation
Future Work in Health Education: CHW Program/Project SAFE/Project SURVIVE
Project SURVIVE Presentation Self-Evaluation Due