The PIVOT Program trains undergraduate students to serve as campus leaders dedicated to building a UVM community free from interpersonal violence (i.e., sexual violence, dating/intimate partner violence, and stalking). Peer educators organize events, create social awareness campaigns, and develop and run workshops on various topics (e.g., dispelling rape myths, bystander intervention strategies, consent education, healthy relationship skills) that give UVM students the knowledge and tools to help prevent violence on and off campus. Peer educator training uses an intersectional approach in which trainees learn about the structural, cultural, and social contexts that uphold violence and differentially impact the experiences of survivors of various identities and backgrounds. The PIVOT Peer Educator Program is a student-driven initiative founded on activism and social justice. As such, it aims to empower all UVM students to help create the environment where they live and learn.PIVOT Program Design
Students become PIVOT peer educators via a semester-long internship-style course that provides them with a safe, collaborative environment in which to learn, create, and practice applying real social change efforts in the UVM community. Throughout the internship, students are also tasked with evaluating their work for meaningful inclusivity that centers the voices of the most marginalized victim-survivors on campus.
While the internship’s course design provides necessary structure and close mentorship from Dr. Demers, students are given a great deal of autonomy and creative freedom. Each cohort chooses the topics of the workshops they will develop for the semester and sets their own priorities for new and creative collaborations, campaigns, and events. Grounded in a community-engaged model, PIVOT views peer educators as valued experts in their communities, empowering them to create meaningfully tailored prevention efforts that recognize UVM’s unique needs.
To enroll in the PIVOT internship, students must have already completed a prerequisite course, HSCI 2990: Preventing Campus Sexual and Dating Violence I. Students in this course gain an understanding of research, practice, and policy related to interpersonal violence and prevention science, building the knowledge base necessary to inform their future work as peer educators. The course also uses an intersectional lens to examine the role of interpersonal violence within larger systems of oppression. Any student who wishes to gain a better understanding of interpersonal violence may take HSCI 2990, regardless of major, college, class year, or whether they plan to enroll in the internship to become a PIVOT peer educator.