Green Dot
The University of Minnesota Morris is a Green Dot campus. This is a proven and effective program to decrease personal power based violence on our campus.
“No one can do everything, but everyone can do something”
Power-based personal violence is not a huge‚ solid mass that can simply be removed with one swift action or policy. Rather‚ it is the accumulation of individual decisions‚ moments‚ values‚ and actions made by the men and women from every corner of our world. It’s hard to know exactly how many red dots are on our map at any given moment – but we do know there have been enough red dots to create a culture that promotes bystander inaction and sustains a rate of nearly a quarter of women becoming victims of violence during their lifetimes and an untold number of men experiencing similar trauma.
Now imagine adding a green dot in the middle of all those red dots on your map. A green dot is any behavior‚ choice‚ word‚ or attitude that promotes safety for all our citizens and communicates utter intolerance for violence. A green dot is pulling a friend out of a high risk situation – a green dot is donating a few dollars to your local service provider– a green dot is displaying an awareness poster in your room or office – a green dot is putting a green dot message on your facebook page – a green dot is striking up a conversation with a friend or family member about how much this issue matters to you. A green dot is simply your individual choice at any given moment to make our world safer.
How many green dots will it take to begin reducing power-based personal violence? How many of us need to add 2 or 3 or 7 or 50 dots to this map to begin to make a difference and begin to outnumber and displace those red dots? We cannot know the exact number‚ but we do know this: if most of us choose inaction – if most of us choose to close our eyes to this issue – if most of us choose apathy and indifference – then the red dots stand! If we do not begin replacing moments of violence with moments of support and safety‚ then we will surely continue to have more than 1 in 4 women and countless men become victims of violence. That is not OK. That must not be OK with any of us.
Green Dot Training Opportunities
The University of Minnesota, Morris has several green dot instructors and we offer training during new student orientation and throughout the year. If you’d like to schedule a green dot training, please contact the wellness center/violence prevention coordinator at 320-589-6061