To stem the rising tide of sexual assault, and with funding from the Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women, Felician University will work closely with the YMCA’s healingSPACE—Bergen County’s sexual violence resource center – and the Rutherford Police Department, to enhance victim safety, provide services for survivors, and support efforts to hold offenders accountable.

“In keeping with our Franciscan values of respect for human dignity, compassion, transformation, solidarity with the poor and justice and peace, we must do all we can to prevent and respond to the egregious act of sexual assault against any person and particularly violence against women,” said Dr. Anne Prisco.

Among other activities, the new OVW funded program will convene a coordinated community response (CCR) team, and develop mandatory education and prevention training for all incoming students, faculty and staff.  Additionally, response training for sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking will be provided to the University’s campus security personnel to increase knowledge and competencies.

The mission of the Office on Violence Against Women, a component of the U.S. Department of Justice, is to provide federal leadership in developing the national capacity to reduce violence against women and administer justice for and strengthen services to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.

For additional information, please contact Ian Wentworth.