By Kelsey Dixon//
Hood College’s Student-led Peer Advocacy for Healthy Relationships and Consent (SPARC) club is doing all that it can this April to spread the news about Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
SPARC has been advised by CARE Project Coordinator Nina Carr since January 2019 and is led by students. Caroline Narvaez is the president, Sarah Sardina is the vice president, Ashley Coppage the public relations chair and Brooks Anderson is the treasurer.
Carr says she was inspired to create SPARC in hopes of helping students assemble a voice and feel comfortable enough to talk about healthy relationships and consent. The focus of the organization is to promote positive sexual experiences.
“We have enlightening discussions about various topics, not limited to domestic violence and sexual assault,” Sardina said.
During the month of April, SPARC has partnered up with Hood’s Wellness Center, Heartly House, Student Engagement and faculty members to host events, discussions and activities for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
So far they have hosted Sex, Love and Bingo, a scandalous and fun hybrid bingo game; a Teal Tuesday Selfie Contest, an interactive activity for students to share a photo of themselves wearing teal to show their support for Sexual Assault Awareness Month; Best Practices for Supporting Survivors, a discussion led by Heartly House to learn how to better understand and approach survivors; and Intersectionality and the Myth of the Perfect Victim, a talk led by professor Simone Kolysh.
SPARC will also host:
A Preliminary Review of Gender-Based Violence on Campus, a faculty-led talk with Teresa Bean on April 20
Prevention 101: The Basics, led by Nina Carr on April 21
Student-led Bystander Workshop on April 27
Coloring on the Quad on April 27
Outdoor Movie Night: The Mask You Live In on April 30
Coppage says that they will continue to create events and activities to best accommodate the Hood community. She hopes that by incorporating these fun and light-hearted activities it will allow students to feel more inclined and eager to continue to spread awareness and use their voices. SPARC’s primary goal is to listen, advocate and offer resources to those who need it.
Meetings take place every Tuesday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. via Zoom. To stay connected and learn more about SPARC, check out @sparc_at_hood on Instagram.
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