Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment hosts events and promotes outreach to foster a campus community that works to end sexual assault and violence.
The UW-Madison student organization that was established in 2001, PAVE works by facilitating workshops on gender-based violence, allyship, rape culture and dating norms. They also offer volunteer opportunities and host campus-wide events to educate and raise awareness.
“It’s a movement against violence by students for students,” said PAVE Chair Elias Tsarovsky. “So we are able to relate to students in a way that is much different than like a [University Health Services] or a Title IX training because we are able to talk honestly about the current climate of campus.”
During the spring 2021 semester, PAVE is launching media campaigns to increase awareness, looking at campus policy to aid in violence prevention, planning collaborations with the Greek organizations on campus, working with the UW-Madison Student Title IX Advisory Committee and hosting events for community members.
“Knowing a lot of people who have been affected by these issues, this is something that needs to end now,” Tsarovsky said. “It's very much a motivator. I can make a difference doing this, and I know that my involvement in this will actually provide the people who want to make a difference the ability to make a difference.”
Tsarovsky encourages UW-Madison students to get involved in PAVE through their volunteer leadership program, where students can contribute to projects that support PAVE, or as a peer educator, where students are trained to run PAVE’s General Workshop.
“I want every single person to be a part of this movement because there is a place for everybody to be a part of this,” Tsarovsky said.
On Monday, PAVE hosted the “Indigenous Women’s History with Professor Sasha Maria Suarez” discussion in collaboration with Wunk Sheek, one of the student organizations on campus dedicated to students of indigenous identity.
Next week, the Social Justice Hub is joining PAVE for their bi-weekly discussion on Monday, March 22 at 6 p.m. over Zoom which will cover rape culture on campus.
PAVE also plans to host their Women’s History Month program featuring Wanda Swan, a speaker, published scholar and anti-violence advocate, on “Reframing Violence Prevention as Anti-Oppression Work.” Members of the UW-Madison community can attend this Zoom discussion from 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24.
Gina Musso is a Senior Staff Writer at The Daily Cardinal. She previously served as College News Editor and Features Editor, focusing coverage around student government, campus COVID updates and in-depth reporting. Follow her on Twitter @gina__musso.
