Who we are
The Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office (SVPRO) supports all members of the University of Waterloo campus community who have experienced or been impacted by sexual violence. This includes all students, staff, faculty, and visitors on the main campus, satellite campuses, and affiliated and federated Waterloo Institutes and Colleges.
What we do
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Provide support for those impacted by sexual violence.
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Deliver education, training, and awareness-raising initiatives.
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Provide consultations to campus members who have received a disclosure of sexual violence, or have questions about available supports or institutional response pathways.
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Work with individuals from a trauma-informed framework and seek to embed principles of trauma-informed care and response in policies and procedures.
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Engage current legislation, literature, research, and promising practices on sexual violence response and prevention.
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Consult with, and prioritize the lived experiences of those impacted by sexual violence.
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Evaluate and measure institutional interventions addressing campus sexual violence – engage in data collection and analysis, and utilize findings to identify trends, gaps, and recommendations for future directions.
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Build strong collaborations with campus partners, Kitchener-Waterloo community organizations, and provincial and federal networks of those addressing gender-based violence on campuses.
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Utilize a public-health approach to address campus sexual violence prevention.
SVPRO is here for you - connect with us at: svpro@uwaterloo.ca
We are guided by multiple approaches
Survivor-centered: empower survivors by prioritizing their rights, wishes, and well-being.
Trauma-informed: recognize the prevalence and pervasive impact of trauma on peoples' lives, promote survivors’ safety and recovery, and minimize harm from retraumatization.
Intersectional: recognize how social positionality along lines of race, Indigeneity, class, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship status, and other social locations inform experiences of power, oppression, and privilege.
Anti-oppressive: seek to acknowledge and dismantle intersectional systems of oppression that produce structural and everyday inequities.
Evidence-based: consult scholarship, grey literature, and institutional evaluation research to deliver effective service delivery and programming.
Interdisciplinary: utilize multiple fields of study, theoretical frameworks, and methodologies to inform sexual violence response and prevention.
Collaborative: emphasize collaboration across different campus and community groups to meaningfully advance the work of sexual violence response and prevention.
Campus Resources: Understanding Supports on Campus
Together, Let's Build a Consent Culture
Events
SVPRO Info Session for International Students
A session for international students to learn what sexual health services exist on campus and within our community, including sexual harassment and assault support, birth control options, STI testing, HPV vaccine, and pregnancy options. We look forward to seeing you there!
When: Wednesday March 22, 2023
Where: STC 0060
Time: 5:30-6:30PM
Male Allies Workshop
Join Chris Martin (he/him) with the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office for a Male Allies workshop, a drop-in, virtual workshop for men-identifying students seeking to understand and practice male allyship. The objective of these workshops is to engage and encourage men, with their unique privilege and responsibility, to address systemic and everyday forms of gender-based violence.
Learning objectives:
- Understand how to address systemic and everyday forms of gender-based violence
- Recognize and understand what characterizes effective male allyship
- Understand how to practice male allyship and engage in alternative narratives of masculinity
- Recognize the complex roots of gender-based and sexual violence
- Understand how to identify and address privilege, gender stereotypes, biases, and existing systems of inequity.
- Encourage men to understand their unique and important role in shaping a safe and healthy campus community.
Join virtually via Teams on your computer, mobile app or room device:
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 213 388 504 037
Passcode: oRAWoT
Male Allies Workshop
Join Chris Martin (he/him) with the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office for a Male Allies workshop, a drop-in, virtual workshop for men-identifying students seeking to understand and practice male allyship. The objective of these workshops is to engage and encourage men, with their unique privilege and responsibility, to address systemic and everyday forms of gender-based violence.
Learning objectives:
- Understand how to address systemic and everyday forms of gender-based violence
- Recognize and understand what characterizes effective male allyship
- Understand how to practice male allyship and engage in alternative narratives of masculinity
- Recognize the complex roots of gender-based and sexual violence
- Understand how to identify and address privilege, gender stereotypes, biases, and existing systems of inequity.
- Encourage men to understand their unique and important role in shaping a safe and healthy campus community.
Join virtually via Teams on your computer, mobile app or room device:
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 213 388 504 037
Passcode: oRAWoT