COLUMBIA, Sept. 9, 2022 – After seeing increased interest from MU faculty and staff in expanding their professional skills, the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention (RSVP) Center developed The RSVP Institute. This program is designed to equip participants with skills related to equity and violence prevention.
“We chose these specific topics as starting points for this new initiative because we wanted to highlight the strengths of the RSVP Center,” said Patrick Skrivan, RSVP Institute program manager and RSVP Center education and prevention coordinator. “We frequently get inquiries about mandated reporting, bystander intervention skills, and how to best support survivors while still taking care of ourselves.”
These monthly seminars provide an opportunity for hands-on learning from practicing professionals. Each seminar will be held on Zoom and will be approximately 50 minutes long. Registration is required for attendance.
Through the RSVP Institute and its annual spring symposium, program manager Skrivan hopes to achieve three critical goals. These goals include providing a free, internal service to promote improved practices at MU, equipping students with career-beneficial skills and highlighting creative work and research of the campus community in a professional and intentional manner.
“For our first session, we wanted to tackle the professional anxiety that faculty and staff may have about navigating conversations that may result in a mandated report to the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE),” Katryna Sardis, managing coordinator of the RSVP Center, said. “We brought in Investigator and Outreach Coordinator Kelsey Forqueran from OIE to talk through the mandated reporting process, including the policy as well as procedures so that participants felt confident and more comfortable navigating those conversations in their professional lives. Attendees learned great skills and even contributed to the dialogue by asking intentional and meaningful questions that folks from all fields and departments were able to find valuable.”
Several faculty members joined for the first seminar. Recordings can also be requested and used as a resource.
Future seminars will take place at noon on Oct. 5 and Nov. 9 with Sardis.
“We want to make sure that the RSVP Institute is bringing in the best of the best to walk our faculty, staff and professional employees through critical policies, conversations and ideas that the workforce is facing,” Skrivan said.
Contact Katryna Sardis with any questions.
About the RSVP Center
The RSVP Center works alongside the social justice centers within the MU Division of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity. The center is committed to ending violence on our campus through education, prevention and response. They provide direct case management services, support student groups, host events and programs, give presentations around campus and provide professional development and consultation services. Additionally, the RSVP Center has Peer Education and Internship opportunities for students. Twitter: @MizzouRSVP, Instagram: @MizzouRSVP