Campus Acquaintance Rape Education (CARE)

The CARE program educates the University community through workshops for men and women students and other efforts to reduce the incidence of acquaintance rapes on campus and to create a campus climate sensitive to the needs of sexual assault survivors. CARE workshops are presented through residence halls, sorority and fraternity chapters, classrooms, and student organizations. First Year CARE workshops are a mandatory program in the fall for all first year students. Most workshops are presented by peer educators, students talking to other students about these important issues.

Goals of the CARE Program

1. Provide awareness on the social causes of sexual violence in our culture.
2. Confront sexist attitudes and sexual aggression in others.
3. Explore the effects of alcohol and other drugs as they relate to acquaintance sexual assaults.
4. Increase empathy towards persons victimized by sexual assault or abuse.
5. Inform students about resources available to assist when sexual assault/abuse occurs.
6. Build interpersonal skills related to assertiveness and effective communication.
7. Develop a sense of respect, responsibility and community.

Rights and Responsibilities

• Take all relationships seriously. Every person has the right to be treated with respect and dignity.
• Communicate effectively. Always try to express yourself as clearly and assertively as possible. Make sure the other individual knows what you mean, want and need in each social situation.
• Discuss your expectations. Share your feelings and thoughts about sexual activity in social and intimate relationships with the other person.
• Accept the decisions of others. It is never okay to manipulate, pressure, intimidate or force someone into sexual activity.
• Consider the effects of alcohol and other drugs. Alcohol and other drugs can impair perceptions and reactions in both males and females. This can cause additional problems in communication, and affect the ability to respond effectively.
• Know your rights and responsibilities. You have the right to determine how far sexual activity or intimacy will go and the responsibility to stop when the other person says no.

Personal Commitments to Change

The best prevention of rape and sexual assault is education. Every person, male and female, can make a difference by getting involved in educating others about sexual assault, giving support to sexual assault survivors and holding offenders responsible for their actions. There are many different things we can do to prevent acquaintance rape as individuals and as a community.

• Challenge sexist attitudes. Recognize that attitudes which promote an unequal status for girls and women perpetuate an environment which is conducive to the acceptance of rape and other violence directed at women.
• Get involved in social justice. Keep an open mind to the perceptions of others who are different from you. Read, talk, and act from a position of diversity regarding race, religion, gender, sexuality and class.
• Educate yourself; educate others. Students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have a unique opportunity to educate peers on the issue of acquaintance rape. Students train to serve as members of a CARE facilitation team in a semester long, credited course. These workshops serve to encourage the student population to discuss sexual assault, challenge sexism and become actively involved in confronting the issue of acquaintance rape on campus.