Teal lights glow day and night from the windows of the Sexual and Relationship Violence Center on Garland, Avenue. The lights are a beacon for those seeking guidance and resources.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but the SRVC held an open house on March 19 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first peer education program around sexual assault and violence on campus.
It was early 2000 when six students started to serve as the first peer education team reaching out to students at the University of Arkansas and the surrounding community. The group adopted the name RESPECT (Rape Education Services by Peers Encouraging Conscious Thought) to embody their work.
Twenty-five years later and the program is still going strong. The SRVC open house event featured past and current RESPECT members who talked with other attendees about their experiences and what it has meant for them, and of course teal cupcakes.
Mary A. Wyandt-Hiebert is a founder of RESPECT and director of the Sexual & Relationship Violence Center.
“RESPECT has been one of the greatest honors of my life work,” Wyandt-Hiebert said. “The power of peers is tremendous. The many students who have served over the years have done great things while at the University and have carried on with what they have gained as a RESPECT peer educator. I am proud of all of them and thank them for their committed service.”
The student group of men and women provide rape awareness, prevention, and risk reduction education. They take their message of advocacy for victims and survivors to university classes, organizations, residence halls, Greek organizations, and other campus groups. The group also collaborates with community service providers to address the issue of sexual assault through community awareness initiatives.
“Several former peer educators and retired and current faculty came to campus to extend their congratulations and share stories of yesterday and today,” Wyandt-Hiebert said. “It was truly moving to hear their stories about how RESPECT impacted them still to this day.”
Abigail Wood is a sophomore from Russellville, AR majoring in music education, and is currently a peer educator for RESPECT.
“Being a part of a program that helps a lot of people makes me feel as though I am making a difference. RESPECT has given me confidence in the knowledge that I have and my ability to share it with others,” Wood said. “My college experience has been made better because I am on the RESPECT team.”
Deb Korth, senior associate vice provost for Student Success and Academic Excellence, attended the open house and remembers seeing posters on campus promoting that first group of RESPECT peer educators. She routinely invited RESPECT to talk with her University Perspectives classes for first year students.
“These are some difficult conversations that need to be had, and I was very familiar with Mary’s work, and what those peer educators were doing,” Korth said. “I knew their message would resonate with my students.”
Serving as a peer educator doesn’t just have an impact on those seeking guidance, it has a personal impact on the peer educator and has changed the lives of those who have served the University in this capacity.
Ivan Bibiano, who was a RESPECT peer educator from 2016-2019, is now teaching for Arkansas Virtual Academy, and came to the open house event.
“25 years is a huge milestone. Being part of RESPECT empowered me to take real action toward sexual violence prevention,” Bibiano, said. “And the work I did as a peer educator actual helped shape my life.”
Over the years, RESPECT has repeatedly been recognized for its outstanding service and education efforts and earned more than 16 awards from regional and national organizations. As for the future? Wyandt-Hiebert sees the work continuing with new students as it has over the past 25 years.
“I see honoring 50 years of RESPECT peer education in the future. A program like RESPECT is successful because of its practice of changing as generations of students change,” Wyandt-Hiebert said. “But at the core, the building blocks of RESPECT’s success remain as a consistently strong framework.”