New Members Welcome!

MVP Bridgewater continually seeks new members

  • Weekly meetings: Mondays from 5:30 - 7:00 PM in the Crimson & White Room, located on the second floor of the Campus Center. 
  • If anyone is curious or interested in joining MVP, you are encouraged to come to a meeting to learn more about the program and some of the things MVP will be doing this year.
  • Interested in becoming a member? If you would like to be placed on the email list to get updates, send your mail to Kerry.

 
MVP Bridgewater
(Mentors in Violence Prevention)

About MVP

MVP Bridgewater is an organization of male and female students who are taking an active leadership role in shifting the attitudes and beliefs of their peers around issues of gender violence. Men are involved in a cause that has historically been defined as only a "woman's issue". Male students are working to reduce men's violence against women by increasing other men's awareness about rape, battering, and sexual harassment through workshops to students on teams and in clubs and organizations.

Women involved in MVP are also assuming leadership roles among other women around issues of gender-violence. Unlike other intervention around men's violence against women, MVP Bridgewater also views women as part of the solution. Women are being empowered to step out of the passive bystander role that is often assumed when it comes to men's violence against women and confront the abuse, support each other, and act as mentors and role models for younger girls. MVP is a program that was designed by Jackson Katz and originated from the Center for the Study of Sport in Society (CSSS) at Northeastern University in Boston.

These men and women are asking their peers to join them in taking an active stance to denounce men's violence against women by stepping out and confronting it when they see it. Women and men are learning how to prevent violence.

MVP Bridgewater views men and women as providing potential solutions to the problem of men's violence against women. The emphasis is on empowering participants to confront their peers when they observe abuse toward a woman. Being a bystander to gender violence and making the choice to do nothing sends a very clear message to both the perpetrator and the victim that men's violence against women is acceptable. MVP Bridgewater asks women and men to consider other options than the historical choices of "It's really none of my business" or "That's a women's issue."

What have we been doing?

MVP Bridgewater presents educational programming on and off campus to create an awareness of relationship violence and to identify ways in which everyone can play an active role in ending it. These awareness programs take many forms. In the past, MVP Bridgewater has sponsored The Clothesline Project and Silent Witness Project on campus as part of the Rally Against Relationship Violence Awareness Week. Many workshops have been provided to the students of several residence halls and to local high school students including, the Taunton Reaching Youth Peer Educators and the 10th grade health classes at Bridgewater-Raynham High School (Andy Crisafulli, Class of 2000 and former BSC baseball player the BR Health teacher who brought us into his classes.) MVP Bridgewater was invited to return to Oliver Ames High School to present workshops for the seniors of Ellen Simmons psychology classes in Easton and participated in the Taunton High School Spring Health and Wellness Fair by providing workshops to some students there. MVP Bridgewater was also invited to present a workshop at the Northeast College Counseling Center Director's Conference in Falmouth.

Over the past few years on campus events about awareness of domestic violence while helping others. One of these was the fundraising dance, "Stomp the Beat: Erase the Hate on 3/28" that raised over $1200, which was donated to support the women and children's shelter at Womansplace Crisis Center in Brockton. This was co-sponsored with RHA and Little Siblings Weekend, and supported through the efforts of the Armed Forces Club and the sisters of Phi Kappa Si sorority who helped to decorate. The other major event MVP Bridgewater carried out was a cell phone drive, Call for Help, which net over 150 used cell phones. These old phones were traded by Verizon's Hopeline Program for 20 new phones, which were donated to Womansplace Crisis Center and BSC Campus Police. The new phones are to be used by women who find themselves needing a direct connection to 911 or a police department because of domestic violence in their lives.

The men of MVP Bridgewater took a strong leadership role in assisting the South Shore Women's Center, the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office, Hingham Police and Schools, the Brockton Champion School, and Wareham Schools in developing and implementing a Plymouth County White Ribbon Campaign in February 2002. The kick-off event was held in the Moakley Auditorium on Friday, February 1st. Other events took place at Hingham High School, Plymouth South High School and the Champion Charter School in Brockton. Men who attended each event were invited to take the WRC pledge "I pledge never to commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women" and then put on a white ribbon and sign the pledge banner.

The WRC is an opportunity for the men of BSC to show their support to help create a safer environment for women on campus and in the surrounding communities. While only a minority of men intentionally commit acts of violence against women, a majority of men are affected by it as some women mistrust and blame men as a group. Not only does MVP strengthen the voices of men who recognize and oppose such violence, the White Ribbon Campaign provides a place to express that opinion.

For more information about the Plymouth County White Ribbon Campaign or MVP Bridgewater program call or email Bob Haynor, Outreach Education Coordinator at the Bridgewater State College Counseling Center (508-531-6175).

 

Last Modified: October 5, 2005