Sexual Violence – Speak Out!

Sexual violence and harassment are major problems for society in general and for Higher Education Institutes, including IT Sligo.

Under joint Chairs Dr. Michele Glacken (VP Academic Affairs and Registrar) and Professor Jacqueline McCormack (VP Online Development) IT Sligo is implementing an Action Plan to seek to end sexual violence and harassment. One of the key actions of the plan is running Active*Consent workshops for students. Academic colleagues may have been contacted with requests to facilitate the running of these workshops. Further details on Consent are available at Consent. .

The first annual progress report was reported to the Governing Body in January 2022. Whilst there has been solid progress, priorities for 2022/23 include substantially increasing participation in Active*Consent workshops through formally scheduling workshops in Faculty Induction Programmes.

As there remains a reluctance amongst those affected by sexual violence and harassment to report it, an anonymous online reporting tool Speak Out has been developed nationally to encourage greater reporting. Anonymous reporting will achieve two things; firstly, it will include signposting for victims to the support and help that is available to them, both within the Institute and from other support organisations. Secondly, it will give Institutes insight to what is happening within their college community to better inform the development of policies and initiatives to address sexual violence and harassment. It is hoped that by reporting anonymously and accessing the counselling and other support services available, those affected may get to a position where they are prepared to formally report incidents of sexual violence and harassment.

Speak Out is available for staff as well as students.

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