For 25 years, has provided confidential advocacy to students, faculty and staff who have been impacted by interpersonal violence, sexual assault and stalking, in addition to providing prevention education.

UofL News talked with PEACC Director Tish Pletcher, who has been with the organization 10 years, about how PEACC continues to make a positive impact on the campus community.

UofL News: How would you define the core mission of PEACC?

Pletcher: We say our mission to pursue excellent and inclusive service has two primary parts: First, we work to end power-based personal violence by providing the campus community with the tools and support to make that happen through the programming. Second, we advocate for anyone affected by sexual assault, partner violence and stalking on individual, organizational and public levels through our services. With statistics like 1:3, 1:4 and 1:10, all of us know people affected by power-based personal violence.

UofL News: For 25 years, PEACC has been there for staff, faculty and students who need assistance. What kind of changes have been the most significant in that time? How has the issue evolved?

Pletcher: Our vision and mission have remained consistent, but our work is deepening. With our intervention, we are moving beyond crisis response to include multiple doors of access for survivors to address their trauma. We offer trauma informed yoga, meditation walks, writing workshops, a survivor network – you name it! These are all research-based approaches that might be helpful to a survivor after assault or intimate partner violence. It’s our job to offer as many of these as possible.

One way the issue itself has evolved is that we are no longer just talking about the violence, but all the life factors that a person might face with this issue.

UofL News: Prevention education programming is a core aspect of PEACC. Can you tell us more about prevention efforts and how allies can help in those efforts? 

Pletcher: We have shifted our focus from the victim and perpetrator to bystanders. We teach students, faculty and staff to recognize warning signs of intimate partner violence, stalking and sexual assault, and how they can respond. That might be to directly check in with a person, cause a distraction in the moment, or even delegate to someone else. It doesn’t matter what a person does; it just matters that they do something. If we as bystanders know what to do to step in and intervene, we can significantly impact the rates of violence on our campus.

UofL News: What societal or political factors affect the issue of interpersonal violence?

Pletcher: Funding. Resources. Politics and policies. Systems change (or lack thereof). Oppression in all its forms. I could go on and on.

UofL News: What is still disheartening? What is encouraging? 

Pletcher: It is disheartening every time another person walks in for services, and to hear the stories of people continuing to hurt other people. What’s encouraging is seeing all the people on campus who say “I want to help, I believe in doing my part, and I’m here for it.” Seeing them come out to a Green Dot Dodgeball Contest, join Men of PEACC for a Lunch & Learn, invite us to their RSO, walk a friend or classmate into our office to talk to an advocate. It makes my heart happy.

Another encouragement is the survivors who walk through our doors. They never, ever cease to amaze me. I learn something from them every day and I’m a better human being because of them. They make PEACC what it is.

To help discover new and better best practices to fight this overwhelming issue, students are making the most of a unique domestic violence research opportunity through a three-year grant from and a partnership with Arizona State University.

UofL’s Kent School was the only school in Kentucky, and one of only 13 schools nationally, to be selected as a site. SurvivorLink provides future social workers trained in violence against women with pathways to public health-related careers.

“The students are the most critical piece,” said Heather Storer, associate professor at Kent School. “They are doing the hard work of cross-training and messaging into new arenas.”

For Sarah Boggins and D.J. Martin, two UofL Master of Science in Social Work graduates who participated in the project during its inaugural year, SurvivorLink provided them the chance to carry the knowledge they gleaned and new tools they developed into their advocacy in ways that will make a real difference.

It helped Boggins define a career niche at the intersection of social justice, youth development and domestic violence prevention.

“SurvivorLink prioritizes prevention and takes an anti-violence approach to their curriculum,” Boggins said. “It gave me an increased motivation and passion for youth work and for incorporating the prevention techniques I learned into the youth development area.”

As a first lieutenant stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Washington, Boggins is a diversity and inclusion trainer and executive officer in the 92nd Maintenance Group. She plans to start law school at the University of Washington in summer 2023.

“Social justice is really where my heart lies,” Boggins said. “With numerous anti-trans laws coming out that affect trans youth, it is more pressing than ever to contribute to that community work and to fight the legislation that is going to further oppress and harm that community.”

Martin, also active-duty military, is a staff sergeant and interim deputy of health information management at the Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii. As a victim advocate, she supports the training and development of the U.S. Army’s programs around domestic violence and sexual assault to address the epidemic within the military culture.

According to Martin, top levels of leadership is not where systemic change will start.

“We need to identify it and talk about it in middle management where the people are actually affected by sexual assault, harassment and domestic violence, and where the changes actually happen,” Martin said. “It is so important for us at this level to be the change that we want to see. I am prepared to go out into the world and make it a better place.”

Storer says reaction to the SurvivorLink program has been overwhelmingly positive, and the department plans to expand the cohort and eligibility for participants for the remaining two years of the grant.

“I am excited seeing the program grow and deepen, and we are hopeful to continue to learn from our students’ experiences.”