Sexual Assault Peer Advisors (SAPA)

SAPA is a peer advising group sponsored by Dartmouth College's Health Promotion Department (in Dick's House). The Sexual Assault Awareness Program Coordinator serves as the advisor. A SAPA is a Sexual Assault Peer Advisor—a student who has undergone a 32 hour training course and has learned the fundamentals to serve as a resource for students who have been confronted with issues of sexual assault and/or intimate partner violence. These students work with survivors (either recently or in the past), secondary survivors (UGAs, friends, family, or partners) and help to enlighten the Dartmouth community about sexual assault and intimate partner violence. A SAPA provides support, information, and referrals. If you or your friends have been affected by sexual assault or intimate partner violence, the SAPAs are a trained confidential peer resource available to help you! 

Philosophy
Training
Programming
SAPAs
Spotlight on a SAPA
SAPA Talk

Philosophy

The philosophy of the SAPA program is based upon the following Shared Beliefs and Values:

1. The victim is never at fault for any assault or abuse that he/she may encounter.
2. Healthy sexual relationships are consensual and never coercive or exploitative.
3. Sexual assault or intimate partner violence can happen to anyone; sexual or intimate partner violence can be committed by anyone.
4. Every victim is the expert in his/her own healing process.
5. Sexual violence is a community issue.
    

Training

Each SAPA has completed 32 hours of training, typically broken down into two-hour sessions. SAPA training is offered during Winter and Spring terms. This training is designed to give SAPAs the knowledge and ability to learn the primary information necessary to be a good resource to survivors of sexual assault or intimate partner violence. The content of the training includes basic knowledge of relationship and sexual violence, first responder skills, crisis intervention, medical and mental health concerns and services, judicial and legal services and procedures, personal safety planning, and additional relevant content. Blitz SAPA to find out about the next training.

SAPA Application

Programming

Part of the role as a resource to students here at Dartmouth, a SAPA will also participate in a variety of programming, both large and small scale. Through participation at different programs, SAPAs will provide support to students that have been affected by sexual violence, support fellow peer advisors who are also raising awareness, and lastly, to continue their own education around sexual violence and other related issues.

A few examples of programs that SAPAs are involved with are:
Consent Day, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Sex Signals, SexFest, V-Week & Speak Out, and Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM)

SAPAs

Name                                Residence               
Alice Morrison                    Off campus
Annie Munger                     Alpha Phi 3
Anneliese Sendax               Russell Sage 1
Angela Kim                        Hitchcock 1
Brittany Yoon                     North Mass 1
Chelsea Hassett                  Alpha Phi
Cole Haskins                      Sigma Nu
Emily Brody-Bizar               Gile 3
Emily Dollar                       North Mass 2
Ethan Klein                         East Wheelock-Andres 4
Genevieve Mifflin               East Wheelock-Andres 1
Holli Weed                         East Wheelock
Jacob Ammon                     Native American House
Vivienne Kim                     East Wheelock-Morton 4
Mackenzie Boss                 North Fayerweather 2
Marina Villeneuve              Choates-Brown
Maya Johnson                    Lodge 1
Yomalis Rosario                 Wheeler 4

Spotlight on a SAPA:

Coming soon... 

SAPA Talk — Some examples of sexual assault may be...

• Two students had been flirting with one another earlier in the evening. One of the students misinterprets responses from the other student and forces sexual intimacy, ignoring requests that it stop.
• During the course of an evening, a couple is initially comfortable with sexual contact, but then one says the intimacy has gone too far and asks for it to stop, while the other continues the sexual contact despite those objections
• A student feels justified in forcing a partner to have sex because the couple has had a previous sexual relationship
• A student says “no” quietly or timidly, yet another student continues to proceed with sexual advances
• Any inappropriate or non-consensual contact such as pinching or slapping a person’s buttocks or grabbing their breast or genitals.