The Los Angeles Valley College

Vision/Mission Statement

The Healthy Advocacy Campus Response Teams’ (HART) mission is to make contact with every campus community and provide the support, assistance and leadership to make our campuses safe for students and employees to work and learn.

Our responsibility is to provide every individual on campus support if needed and our commitment is to ensure that all campus communities develop respect and tolerance for each other and each other’s cultures.

Best Practice and Benchmarks

A District Committee has been convened and chaired by the District Office Compliance Officer, Lisa Winter within the Office of Diversity Programs. The committee’s role is to assist campuses further develop the infrastructure, protocol, policies and services that address issues of violence and assault.

The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) is a partner in the Los Angeles College Consortium Project (LACCP). This is in keeping with the Internal Memorandum of Understanding signed by the LACCD on December 19, 2005.

District Committee

The District Committee’s membership includes individual campus Team Leads (or their designated representatives), a General Counsel representative and the District Office Compliance Officer.

The Compliance Officer will oversee the committee’s development of a District-wide approach to addressing violence and assault issues, and their impact on our campuses. The committee will support LACCD in achieving best practice; and through the committee, the LACCD will become a more effective partner in the LACCP

The First Responders

To meet the goals it is vital each campus has an active and well-informed HART.

Ideally HART should:

· Be comprised of best practice membership including the following areas – counseling, health, sheriff’s office, classified, faculty, management, compliance office, students and agency representatives.

· Be departmentally diverse

· Be representative of the campus student body demographics

· Be represented by male and female members

· Be culturally diverse and also reflect the diversity of the campus

· Select one or two co Team Leads

· Have at least one crisis intervention certified member

· Meet once a month to evaluate protocol and periodic events

· Receive refresher training at least twice a year

· Receive certification training as needed

· Attend at least one conference addressing issues relating to sexual assault/domestic violence/stalking such as the DOJ/CALCASA Training Institute

· Participate in “Webinars”

· Be informed of current issues from other members who have attended training ands conferences

· Liaise with senior administrators and board members

HART First Response: (On going)

The HART First Responder’s role is to identify and work towards creating a safe campus and to assist victims of a violent crime with referral options. Our charter will address the following:

· Have contact points on campus known to all staff and students regarding the reporting of incidents

· Develop and disseminate comprehensive response protocols that clearly delineate available channels for reporting incidents and each responder’s responsibilities

· Provide confidential crisis response and ongoing victim advocacy services, including accompaniment to hospital, and court appointments; assistance with academic issues; and referrals to on-campus and community resources

· Review the physical environment for safety, including installing lighting, surveillance cameras, and emergency call boxes; cutting bushes; and increasing patrols in high-risk areas

Awareness: (On-going)

It is crucial that HART raise awareness of issues relating to the victims and perpetrators of violent crimes and assaults especially in addressing misconceptions surrounding such crimes.

HART will assist in developing more effective policies and protocols, processes for prevention, identifying, and responding to violent crimes. This will be done through education and outreach to our campus communities, including senior administrators and board members.

HART will:

· Implement programs and policies to support healthy group norms, correct misperceived norms, and promote safe and productive bystander intervention.

· Develop materials and information available via print and electronic media (including websites, pamphlets, DVD/Music media, etc.)

· Encourage classroom opportunities (i.e. directed study courses)

· Develop and establish volunteer and ASO support and partnerships

· Utilize existing campus club participation

· Liaise with community groups to get their involvement, input and support

· Ensure that referral information is centrally located and accessible to all – (e.g. campus websites etc.)

· Ensure awareness programs are relevant and reaches the diversity within our campuses

· Hold special events and activities to coincide with designated sexual assault/domestic violence/stalking months

· Target groups or departments to undergo sensitivity training, such as the Sheriff’s office and athletes

· Plan, organize, and implement on-campus visitor seminars and events.