Coahoma Community College has received funding to continue providing students with the most supportive system of resources for dating and domestic violence incidents. Undergoing a name change would also come with the program’s grant renewal. The former Dating and Domestic Violence Program targets inclusivity by becoming identified as the Interpersonal Violence Program.
The institution is pleased to continue offering students appropriate assistance with the 2021 Grants to Reduce Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking on Campus Program awarded through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). Coahoma's campus initiative is proud to be one of only 52 projects selected from exactly 102 submitted applications that sought backing.
According to Kenneth Gooden, Coahoma’s Interpersonal Violence Program coordinator, the initiative rebranded to incorporate the underserved population.
“The OVW grant centers around domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking,” said Gooden. “We wanted to emphasize that we specialize in more than just “dating and domestic violence” as our previous name may have suggested. We will focus on all forms of gender-based violence. The good part is that gender norms will not be dismissed with our program.”
Strengthening its efforts, the resource will link with external victim service providers to improve support and advocacy on campus, a collaboration set to upgrade referrals, create more effective victim-centered response protocols, and assess 24-hour accessibility of resources to victims. CCCIVP plans to recharge an ongoing on-campus, culture-specific bystander intervention program called “It’s Your Business,” which was formed to encourage the campus community to speak up when witnessing incidents of abuse.
Additionally, the program has been revamped to assign an Advocacy Liaison whose duty is to team with the program director and external partners to produce robust on-campus victim services.
Training to enact a ‘peer-to-peer educator’ concept, a second add-on, aims to enhance student participation as well as institute prevention messaging.
Overall, the program hopes to meet the challenge of prevention programming and better engage the underserved population through enhanced training. Its culture-specific programming attempts to focus on healthy masculinity and deconstruct societal norms related to the topic of abuse.
To get help or request more information about Coahoma’s Interpersonal Violence Program, contact IVP coordinator Kenneth Gooden at (662)621-4666 or kgooden@coahomacc.edu. Reach the emergency helpline at (662)621-4175, after hours: (662)645-1837.