Circle of 6 App Helping Change Campus Culture at Williams
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — When it comes to sexual assault prevention, campus culture at Williams College is changing. Data collected through a student survey, focus groups, and anonymous usage records all show that a new mobile app called Circle of 6, by enabling a few common sense strategies and fostering peer discussion on dating and relationships, is helping change students from individual bystanders to peer supporters engaged in collective preventative action.
Circle of 6 is a sexual assault prevention app that allows the user to create a circle of six friends a student can call or text easily when she or he is in an uncomfortable situation. A customized version of the app has been developed called “Circle of 6 U” that has links to campus-based sexual assault prevention and response resources, as well as a spectrum of educational resources on healthy and unhealthy relationships.
Williams was the first college in the country to pilot the customized app, which was deployed comprehensively on campus a year ago. Focus groups conducted on campus this summer, coupled with student responses in the recent Attitudes on Sexual Assault survey, provide compelling evidence that the app is helping change campus culture, said Meg Bossong, Williams’ director of sexual assault prevention and response.
“One of the keys to successful prevention work is fostering both individual skill-building and cultural change,” Bossong said. “What we’re seeing is that the Williams community is thinking deeply and often about how to create safety, and we’re seeing those conversations expand across the whole year, not just during orientation times when the focus is most intense.”
Data from Circle of 6 show that students in the 2,100-person Williams community open the app an average of 134 times a day, whether to interrupt uncomfortable situations, ask a friend to talk, find help getting home, or connect with campus-based resources.
In the portion of the survey that addresses the same bystander behaviors encouraged by the Circle of 6 app, 69 percent of the 1,300 respondents said they had checked in with a friend who looked very intoxicated and was leaving a party with someone. Eighty-two percent of students said they helped an intoxicated or otherwise challenged friend get home. A total of 52 percent of respondents said they had interrupted a conversation when one person was or appeared to be making another feel unsafe or uncomfortable.
Students in the focus group told Nancy Schwartzman, the app’s creator, that they took text messages from friends generated from Circle of 6 seriously. They also liked the privacy policies built into the app and its library of personalized school resources.
“We are thrilled that Circle of 6 will now be a part of Williams’ ongoing efforts to address sexual assault,” Schwartzman said. “In developing the app, we listened to what students said would help them the most, which is why in addition to connecting them to resources, we focused on peer-to-peer involvement by a student’s own trusted circle. This is also why we place such importance on protecting personal privacy. Circle of 6 is designed to promote a positive, welcoming environment that spurs discussion, educates, and creates a network of personal commitments to help young people navigate this difficult terrain. With a focus on prevention and respect for each other and community, we are seeing tangible cultural change.”
Incoming first-year students who arrived on campus this week will be encouraged to download the app on their smartphones, Bossong said. The Williams version of the app has been downloaded more than 2,700 times in its first year of use.
Tags: sexual assault, Williams College,
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