Being a peer educator is one of the most important things Matt Fox has done at Syracuse University.

Fox, a junior information management and technology major, has been involved in sexual and relationship violence advocacy since his freshman year at SU. Now, he is a peer educator through the Office of Health Promotion as well as the president of A Men’s Issue, a student organization that promotes a society free from sexual and relationship violence.

Peer educators support SU’s effort to become a safer and more caring community where there is an open dialogue around healthy relationships and sexuality, according to the program’s website. The overall goal of the program is to promote healthy relationships free from any form of violence, according to the website.

This semester, six undergraduate students were accepted to the newly named peer educator program within the Office of Health Promotion.

Trained peer educators are available to facilitate interactive discussions that promote healthy sexuality and relationships, dispel myths about sexual and interpersonal violence, look at gender roles in relation to violence, define consent, provide suggestions for risk reduction, advise about available resources and explore what each person on campus can do to end relationship and sexual violence, according to the website.

“Peer educators can go out into the campus community and speak to the issues and engage other students in conversation about these topics,” said Jill Sneider, the sexual and relationship violence prevention coordinator at the Office of Health Promotion.

The peer educators meet every Friday for a few hours to discuss relationship and sexuality issues, learn about resources offered on campus and develop the necessary skills to facilitate discussions with students, according to the Office of Health Promotion’s website.

“The topics are hard to talk about, and talking with one’s peers is really meaningful,” Sneider said.

Rachael Friedman, a senior women’s and gender studies major, is among the new group of selected peer educators. She was encouraged to apply by her roommate, also a peer educator, who spoke very highly about the program and the work that it does.

“Our campus, like all college campuses, has a major problem with sexual and relationship violence,” Friedman said. “I wanted to do something to prevent it, and I knew that the Office of Health Promotion had the same vision.”

The peer educators are partnered with A Men’s Issue as well as the Counseling Center’s BeWise Peer Educators, a group of students trained to provide educational trainings and outreach on increasing awareness about alcohol use and alcohol poisoning.

Peer educators are trained to do seven workshops, including “Healthy Relationships 101,” an interactive discussion about what constitutes types of abuse versus types of respect within relationships, and “Pizza and Sex: What do they have in Common?” The discussion focuses on opening communication about sex and sexuality, which in turn leads to healthy encounters based on consent.

“When the people who have power say this is serious, something shifts, so we’re at a really interesting point in our culture … because I have never seen nearly as much interest in these issues in all these years,” Sneider said. “It’s exciting to see the conversation being broadened.”

Published on October 18, 2015 at 8:46 pm

Contact Stacy: sfern100@syr.edu | @StacyFernandezB