In coordination with the goals of Student Union and Leaders in Interpersonal Violence, the sexual assault prevention program “It’s On Us” will expand this year to include two additional components focused on intersectionality and specific issues to Washington University students.

The It’s On Us program, a national initiative to end sexual assault launched by former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden in September 2014, was brought to Washington University by then-Student Union President Emma Tyler in November 2014. The bystander intervention training program, called Intervene, was launched in October 2015, during former Student Union President Jordan Finkelstein’s tenure.

On Feb. 13, SU will open registration for the revamped Intervene program and all-new Care and Learn programs.

Intervene, as it has in the past, will focus on bystander intervention training, this time with a more directly Washington University-centric base in its curriculum.

“We wanted to keep the brand name—and we wanted to keep that because we reached 2100 students last year, and there is power with that. So, we looked at what SU had to offer; we looked at what [Leaders in Interpersonal Violence (LIVE)] had to offer, and we took the best of both worlds,” LIVE co-president and junior Michael Collins said. “SU has better funding than us; they have better name recognition. And they just have better presence on campus—more social capital, I would say—while LIVE had the knowledge, expertise and passion.”

Collins noted that the redesigned program, as well as the other new programs, will be more tailored to Washington University since they use campus statistics and scenarios and will also take a more gender and sexuality-inclusive approach.

Care, designed for students who already have some bystander intervention knowledge, is intended to help friends of survivors act as a more informed first resource. Junior and Student Union Vice President of Public Relations Amelia Fong noted that, after speaking with groups like the Women’s Panhellenic Association, the Association of Latin American Students, the Chinese Student Association and varsity athletes, survivor support stood out as a theme.

“If you look at the statistics, someone in your friend circle unfortunately will have had an experience of sexual assault by the end of his, her or their college career here at Wash. U., and it’s best to be prepared for it,” Fong said. “Statistics from the [Association of American Universities] survey shows that a friend is the first person people tend to turn to, and that means the friend has to be a decent enough resource. Hopefully, by upping the standard of the friend resource, we’ll have a more informed community that can be there to support a survivor.”

While the Intervene and Care trainings are concrete, applicable skills-based programs, the Learn training will be more abstract and academic in nature, focused on learning about the campus culture of sexual assault and how it is formed. The program will also be customizable to different student group desires and needs.

According to Collins, for the Intervene and Care programs, about 20-25 LIVE members have been trained to act as facilitators, while there are around 50 trained facilitators for the Learn training, because of the program’s customizable nature.

Fong said that priorities for the three It’s On Us programs will be to train first-year students, Congress of the South 40 and SU. First-year students will be trained by Residential College rather than by floor in order to avoid any potential conflicts, and the trainings will not be mandatory.