From Oct. 7-11, Coastal Carolina University is hosting a Sexual and Dating/Domestic Violence Week. The LiveWell Office, along with SHORE Peer Educators, SAGE, Counseling Services, and Women's and Gender Studies program, will be sponsoring events throughout the week to raise student awareness about sexual, dating, and domestic violence, as well as to educate students about the resources that are available to them at CCU.

The LiveWell Office organizes the awareness week every fall semester in conjunction "National Domestic Violence Awareness Month" and decided to add the topics of dating and domestic violence to be inclusive of other forms of interpersonal violence and broaden the scope of programming.

"Sexual Violence Awareness Week is our opportunity to bring information and resources to our students," said Debbie Conner, vice president of student affairs. "This increases their awareness and supports the education they have already received. All of these efforts are to make CCU a better and a safer place for our community."

All CCU students receive information about these issues at their freshmen or transfer Orientation sessions, via free online education programs, their UNIV 110 courses, and from ongoing education programs that take place through Coastal Carolina's LiveWell office.

Students Advocating Gender Equality (SAGE) and SHORE peer educators will kick off the week on Monday, Oct. 7, by hosting and sponsoring poster-making for the Take Back the Night march between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Prince Lawn. Students will have the opportunity to create signs and posters that they will be on display at the Take Back the Night march. Also, on Monday, the Women's and Gender Studies program will be playing the movie "Behind Closed Doors" in the Coastal Theater. Admission into the movie is free.

The Take Back the Night March will be on Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 6 p.m. in the Lib Jackson Student Union Courtyard. This is a chance for all students, staff, and faculty members to come together and march in support of survivors and violence prevention. Participants will learn chants and will carry the posters they made while marching across campus.

"Upon return to the outdoor stage area of the Union courtyard, we will have an open mic for anyone who would like to share comments, poems, or reflections in support of survivors and general messages against sexual, dating, and domestic violence," said Chris Donevant-Haines, assistant director of Wellness Outreach for the LiveWell Office.

Students who attend this event will be given glow necklaces and ChantSafe giveaways. Additionally, students who attend and sign up to take a survey will have the chance to win a teal JBL speaker. ChantSafe is a one-stop website for CCU students that provides easy-to-understand information and resources regarding a number of topics, including sexual or dating violence.

On Wednesday, Oct. 9, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., SHORE Peer Educators will be hosting the Clothesline Project on Prince Lawn. This is a national initiative that started in the 1990s where people put messages on T-shirts supporting different kinds of interpersonal violence and display them by hanging them on a clothesline.

"When I started at CCU in 1995, we started doing a campus version of the Clothesline Project, allowing students to make T-shirts with messages showing support to survivors," said Donevant-Hanies. "Over the years, we have moved the shirts onto the Wall Pond bridge, and this year hope to cover the entire bridge so everyone can see those messages."

To wrap up the week, there will be a ChantSafe informational table set up on Prince Lawn from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 10. Students can find more information about the ChantSafe website and how they can use it if they are ever experiencing a crisis.