A candlelit procession across Campus West may have perplexed a few onlookers on Monday. Still, to support Sexual Violence Awareness Week, students came together for the annual ‘Light Up the Night’ walk around the University.
The walk has taken place for the last five years now. Originally intended to raise awareness of sexual violence, the success of the walk encouraged the University to set up a Sexual Violence Action Plan in 2021. The walk aims to celebrate and reflect on the work the University’s support services achieved, such as the introduction of Sexual Violence Liaison Officers (SVLOs).
The walk started at Greg’s Place and went around to James College, through Derwent before looping back around to Vanburgh, before the walk finished at Biology, where there was a selection of community support services, including IDAS, Survive, YorSexual Health; and University services such as the YorkSU Advice and Support Centre, all of which joined for networking afterwards.
Misconduct and Respect Advisor Jo Holmes told York Vision that the event had sold over 100 tickets and that attendees have risen every year, as has the number of external organisations presenting themselves at the event.
The University’s SVLOs, Colette Haigh and Liv Hutton, have supported over sixty students this academic year. In a closing speech, they said: “We’re proud that, despite the challenges across the higher education sector at the moment, we’ve continued to provide a service that centres students’ needs.” The new mandatory consent module on the VLE introduced this year has had 350 pieces of student feedback.
SVLOs reach out to affected students within three days of, if possible on the same day as, being referred to them, and offer a range of support options, including emotional support, help accessing other therapeutic services or University processes, or free transportation to the local sexual assault referral centre if applicable.
“We believe that coming together and supporting events like Light Up the Night is incredibly important,” the SVLOs continued, “not only to showcase some of the wonderful support services available, but to open up important conversations amongst friends, family, and within our wider communities.”
At 6:30 pm on Thursday this week, York Student Cinema, on behalf of local sexual violence charity Survive, will show an exclusive screening of the Japanese drama Black Box Diaries to support Sexual Violence Awareness Week.
The University of York SVLOs are available to be contacted through their page here. IDAS can be visited at www.idas.org.uk and Survive at www.survive-northyorks.org.uk.