Posters in the hall featuring the slogan ‘this matters’ and a QR code are part of NAIT’s first ever campaign to raise awareness around gender and sexual-based violence (GBSV).
The campaign is part of NAIT’s larger commitment in 2023 to take seven actions to address GBSV on their campus. According to Jeffery Chalifoux, a newly hired GBSV specialist, there was a province-wide initiative to understand GBSV with a post-secondary lens.
During this initiative, NAIT’s office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (OEDI) consulted with numerous departments to learn about GBSV on campus, and one phrase kept coming up: ‘this matters.’
“[The] number of times that people said, ‘oh this work you’re doing, this matters. This work matters.’ So that’s where the slogan [came from],” said Chalifoux. “It really gets people up to say, ‘Well, what matters?’ They can scan the QR code, get a little bit more information.”
The QR code featured on the posters leads to a website with resources, including a new online reporting tool launched during this campaign. The tool is “designed to make reporting incidents more accessible, confidential and supported,” Chalifoux explained. Respondents can create a confidential record of the incident and choose to anonymously report or not. There’s also an option to report a repeat perpetrator, which will inform NAIT if two or more people have identified the same perpetrator.
“Whether you want to report anonymously or with your name, the tool connects people to the resource in the next steps tailored specifically to their situation,” said Chalifoux. “People that do experience GBSV or do witness as a bystander, they’re able to reach out specifically right to me or to our office to receive those supports here moving forward.”
The website also features information about GBSV, how it impacts people and NAIT’s policies regarding GBSV. Chalifoux encouraged students to explore the campaign for their own knowledge, or to better understand how they can support friends or peers impacted by GBSV. “Ending gender based and sexual violence is something that we can only achieve together, and every action that we take, that you take, whether big or small, it matters in creating a safer campus for everyone.”
Students can find more resources and NAIT’s online reporting tool on the NAIT website. If they’d like more information or assistance, they can also email gbsv@nait.ca.
