Education technology company EverFi, Inc. today announced the national deployment of Haven – Understanding Sexual Assault, a national sexual assault prevention program, at over 180 campuses. More than 300,000 students will become certified through Haven on a mandatory basis this academic year.
The deployment of this program makes it one of the largest online courses and meets important federal requirements outlined by the Department of Education (DoE) and the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (Campus SaVE Act).
“The days of assuming you just need to educate a few bad actors on campus are over,” said Tom Davidson, CEO of EverFi. “With other national institutions, such as the military, looking to higher education for cultural and programmatic answers to prevent and respond to sexual assault, we must use the power of technology to empower students and provide campus leaders with national best practices.”
On August 7th, EverFi will host a webinar, A Roadmap for Prevention: Navigating the Regulatory Landscape of Campus Sexual Assault. The webinar is designed for campus administrators, prevention practitioners, and safety officers, and will focus on the challenges of sexual assault and relationship violence and best practices gathered nationwide.
According to the National Institute of Justice, one in five college women (and one in 16 men) will experience some form of non-consensual sexual activity by college graduation; which in turn presents an urgent challenge for campus leaders. As manifested by the increasing number of Title IX complaints at campuses across the nation, many higher education leaders are implementing campus wide programs that include both face-to-face programming and innovative digital learning, such as Haven, to provide all students with critical information required by new Federal legislation set to go into effect in 2014.
“Since 2008, over 700,000 students have been a part of our sexual assault prevention research and Haven beta development efforts,” said Dr. Todd Wyatt, director of Research at EverFi. “After taking the digital course, 86 percent of participants better understand that anyone can be a victim of sexual assault and 82 percent of students demonstrated the positive role they can play in its prevention.”
Haven uses a tested population-level approach to educate all students on the issues associated with sexual assault and relationship violence, taking into account their personalized experiences. The course provides key definitions and statistics, reflective and personalized pathing, bystander skill and confidence-building strategies around real-life scenarios, signs of abuse, and situations that can be challenging or confusing regarding consent in their own relationships.
In addition, EverFi’s assessment engine and data insights inform campus leadership on additional and future programming decisions across campus.
“Haven addresses sensitive, critical issues in a forthright yet engaging manner,” said Michelle McLernon, coordinator of Outreach Programming at Southern Illinois University. “Furthermore, Haven is designed to collect data that will provide valuable information to enhance prevention strategies employed at our institution. With the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act as well as the passing of the Campus SaVE Act, Haven helps us fulfill key related requirements that institutions provide prevention and awareness programs for all incoming students and new employees.”
