Safehouse Crisis Center and PSU Organization Honored with Statewide Award

Coalition awards Project of the Year Award

For Immediate Release:  Thursday, February 18, 2016

KCSDV Media Contact:  joyceg@kcsdv.org; o: 785-232-9784, c: 785-231-8933

Topeka, KS, 2/18/2016 – The Safehouse Crisis Center of Southeast Kansas, Inc. and Pittsburg State University’s registered organization, Students for Violence Prevention, have received the Project of the Year Award from the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence (KCSDV).  The award was presented during KCSDV’s 13^th Annual Safe Homes, Safe Streets event at the Sunflower Safety Luncheon and Awards Ceremony last week in Topeka.  Since 1995, KCSDV has been recognizing outstanding advocates and allies who are working to enhance victim safety, to increase perpetrator accountability, and to prevent and eliminate sexual and domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking in Kansas.

The Safehouse Crisis Center, the sexual and domestic violence advocacy agency serving Bourbon, Cherokee, Crawford, Labette, Linn, Montgomery, and Wilson counties, and Pittsburg State University began a partnership in 2010 to improve services to college victims of sexual and domestic violence.   “We both recognized the importance of increasing education, awareness, and providing services to those victims on campus,” said Rebecca Brubaker, Safehouse Crisis Center executive director.  It was not long after the partnership began that a Safehouse Crisis Center advocate was located on the university’s campus to provide confidential advocacy services to student victims, and to advise and teach a group of students as peer educators about sexual and domestic violence.  The peer educators soon formalized into the registered Pittsburg State University organization known as the Students for Violence Prevention.

Students for Violence Prevention has grown tremendously and serves as a model for other universities wanting to develop similar programs.   Each semester, Students for Violence Prevention hosts awareness events and programs aimed at educating peers.  In 2015, over 2,000 university students attended presentations sponsored by Students for Violence Prevention and the Safehouse Crisis Center.  Their partnership has been recognized nationally and in Kansas.  “The collaboration between the Safehouse Crisis Center and Pittsburg State University has increased safety for college victims and has brought awareness about the issues of sexual and domestic violence to thousands of people,” said Joyce Grover, KCSDV executive director.  “It is this type of partnership that we are honored to recognize with the Project of the Year Award.”  Brooke Powell, the first Safehouse Crisis Center campus advocate on this project, accepted the award on the partnership’s behalf.  “With continued education and awareness, we are seeing a culture change on the Pittsburg State University campus where victims are believed, supported, and empowered to move forward,” said Brubaker.

Other award winners at this year’s event included Sadie Madden from LARC, the sexual and domestic violence advocacy program located in Liberal, for the Juliene Maska Outstanding Advocate of the Year Award; Twila Wollenberg, MDCV Elementary School Principal, and Officers Lori Kimrey and Darrin Williams of the Wichita Police Department West Patrol Station for the Community Ally of the Year Awards; and Dung and Paul Kimble of Wichita for a Project of the Year Award.

Photos available upon request.