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.ÌęWith 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.ÌęWhat’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.ÌęThey never, ever cease to amaze me. I learn something from them every day and I’m a better human being because of them.ÌęThey make PEACC what it is.

The event, held in conjunction with others like it worldwide, protests sexual violence. It included a resource fair, candlelight vigil and speakers Shannon VanLandingham of , UofL graduate Rachel Williams and Karina Barillas of .

According to Program Manager Tisha Pletcher, the event was especially profound this year, as it comes at a time of unprecedented growth in requests for services from the center.

In the last three years, the number of people seeking assistance for the effects of sexual assault and rape, domestic violence and stalking has more than tripled, growing from 28 students in the 2014/15 academic year to 102 students last year. Pletcher said 92 students sought PEACC services last semester alone.

“It’s been unprecedented, these last few years,” she said. “I think it’s due to everything we’ve seen happening locally, nationally and globally. People are speaking out in a very public way now.”

Events like the #MeToo movement, the Women’s March and high-profile sexual assault cases like that of Bill Cosby, have sparked a greater awareness and helped lift the veil of stigma and shame.

“People are seeing others who’ve experienced something similar to them, who have carried on and become successful. They see they’re not alone in this,” Pletcher said.Ìę

PEACC was particularly busy during the weeks surrounding the high profile hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford.  

“Our numbers doubled those weeks,” Pletcher said. “We heard from numerous students who came in and said ‘I’m just so triggered by this and I need some support.’”

PEACC, which is a part of , offers a gamut of services including prevention education, community advocacy and initial crisis counseling.

Pletcher says for those seeking counseling, staff will listen and gently ask questions to discern what victims need, and help connect them with those resources, whether it’s the police or obtaining a protective order.

They also facilitate survivor network, a private group for those who have had experienced sexual violence, dating violence or/and stalking, that meets twice a month. There are 115 members.

“We let the group make it whatever the members need it to be,” she said. “We just provide the infrastructure to allow it to happen.” 

The free, public event will begin at 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 4, outside the George J. Howe Red Barn on Belknap Campus. The theme for this year’s event is “Surviving Together.”

The schedule includes:

• 5 p.m.: Resource Fair on the plaza outside
• 6:30 p.m.: Formal program inside, including special speakers, Speak Out session and a candlelight vigil
• 7:45 p.m.: march around campus begins

Speakers for the formal program include:

• Kentucky Deputy Attorney General J. Michael Brown
• Chicago writer corporeal artist, activist and speaker Isabel Abbott. She is the author of the poetry book “Salty + Honey”
• Kaila Story, Audre Lorde Chair in Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality Studies at UofL

Prevention, łÉÈËֱȄ and Advocacy on Campus and in the Community (PEACC) hosts the event. The department coordinates campus prevention efforts as well as support to students, staff and faculty who are affected by dating or domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and harassment.

Take Back the Night has been held on UofL’s campus since 2001.

For more information, contact Sally Evans.Ìę