illinois stalking summit

The ILLINOIS STALKING PREVENTION & AWARENESS SUMMIT will provide an opportunity for campus practitioners and student leaders to garner a deeper understanding of stalking and collaborate on proactive approaches to address stalking across the state. The mission of our inaugural Stalking Prevention and Response Summit grounds itself in our preliminary goals to spread awareness of stalking and to help inspire the expansion of preventative efforts on campus. As an allied campus community, we wish to offer visibility to every and all campus experiences that may have caused fear through repeated behavior. Through educational and collaborative effort, we seek to empower and elevate our communities by providing a safe place for learning, prevention, and support.

This year's Summit will be held April 2, 2023 at the Siebel Center for Design.  Registration is FREE and OPEN to all.

2023 REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2023 Illinois Stalking Prevention & Response Summit  

Take Back Control: Educate, Prevent, Support

Summit Details
Sunday, April 2, 2023
10:00 am - 3:30 pm
Siebel Center for Design

Sponsored by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Coordinated Community Response Team

Registration is now closed due to space. To join the waitlist, please email lizette6@illinois.edu for more information.

Theme

The theme of the 2023 Illinois Stalking Prevention and Response Summit is "Take Back Control: Educate, Prevent, Support." The mission of our inaugural Stalking Prevention and Response Summit grounds itself in our preliminary goals to spread awareness of stalking and to help inspire the expansion of preventative efforts on campus. As an allied campus community, we wish to offer visibility to every and all campus experiences that may have caused fear through repeated behavior. Through educational and collaborative effort, we seek to empower and elevate our communities by providing a safe place for learning, prevention, and support.

Summit Sub-Themes:

• Privacy: Despite the rise of the internet and various social media platforms such as snapchat - that allow for more location sharing. It is crucial to develop and implement preventative measures for establishing protection of self-privacy.
• Causation: Through causational effect, we would like to take an in-depth look at the determinants that contribute to stalking behavior. By utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to comprehend WHY stalking occurs on college campuses; ranging from social factors to media perceptions, and more.
• Intersectional Visibility:We live in a society that tends to have underrepresented groups in every category of life: race, gender, socio-economic, sexual orientation, etc. Therefore a crucial segment of our Stalking Prevention and Response Summit intends to grant more visibility to those of different identities that tend to be more affected by stalking.
• Resources: As we navigate through stalking, we have come to realize that a survivor's trauma-response greatly varies depending on individualized needs. Additionally, we understand that there are multitude of organizations that can offer helpful resources for stalking survivors. We are welcoming any organization to present their available resources; that might be helpful to our community.

Summit Schedule

Breakout Sessions

SESSION 1

Knowing the Signs
Location: Classroom 0060

Research shows that young adults ages 18-24 experience the highest rates of stalking among adults. On a college campus, the “typical college student” primarily falls within that age range, which makes them most at risk for such occurrences. In our role as Confidential Advisors, we’ve come to recognize that many of our clients do not realize that they are being stalked. Furthermore, students who experience stalking typically experience other types of sexual misconduct as well. This presentation will highlight the commonly missed signs of stalking, how stalking affects underserved populations, and an overview of advocacy services and the role of confidential advisors in supporting survivors who might be experiencing stalking.

Presenters:
Minsun Kim (she/her), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Women's Resources Center
Kara Lawrence (she/her), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Women's Resources Center

Taking Smart Steps: Protect Your Privacy with Phone Settings
Location: Starlight Room

This workshop will show you the phone privacy settings you should know about. Bring your smartphone to a demonstration of settings that you can change now to better protect your privacy. We will also explore real-world cases showing why these privacy features and settings matter.

Presenters:
Cindy McKendall (she/her), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Technology Services
Sheena Bishop (she/her), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Technology Services

Stalking: Recognizing the Warning Signs
Location: Classroom 1000/1002

Everyone has a role to play in recognizing and preventing stalking. This introductory workshop is adapted from a national curriculum for the UIUC community and is intended to provide a basic overview of stalking, focusing on exploring stalking behaviors, examining the contextual nature of this form of violence, and providing strategies for participants to get involved in building awareness, and supporting survivors.

Presenters:
Sydney Dudek (she/her), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Women's Resources Center
Nora Peterson (she/her), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Women's Resources Center
 

SESSION 2

The Relationship between Stalking and Sexual Violence
Location: Classroom 0060

"The Relationship between Stalking and Sexual Violence" takes an intersectional approach to address root causes which stalking and sexual violence share. It will consequently discuss ways to frame stalking that could be used in prevention efforts. Lastly, the audience will be given information on how RACES can support stalking survivors.

Presenter: Luke Lee (he/him), RACES (Rape Advocacy, Counseling, and Education Services)

Stalking 101: What You Need to Know
Location: Starlight Room

Explore the signs and symptoms of stalking, options for safety planning and potential interventions and resources that law enforcement can assist with.

Presenter: Barbara Robbins, Assistant Chief, University of Illinois Police Department, Division of Public Safety

Stalking As School Sabotage: Advocating for Student Survivors on Campus and in the Classroom
Location: Classroom 1000/1002

How do stalking and harassment affect survivors’ experiences in class and in the workplace, and how can we better support them as they work to meet their academic and professional goals? In this workshop, we will discuss stalking as a form of economic abuse and school sabotage (Voth Schrag and Edmond 2017) on college campuses. We will explain why academic and/or workplace accommodations are crucial to survivors’ success and how these needs are shaped by race, class, gender, disability, sexuality, and age. Following a brief presentation, we will collaborate to develop a toolkit of accommodations that will foster success in a variety of academic settings, as well as explore how these tools can be used in particular departments, campus units, and classrooms.

Presenters:
Kelly Birch Maginot (she/her/hers), Campus Advocacy Network, Women's Leadership & Resource Center
Natalie D. A. Bennett (She/They), Campus Advocacy Network, Women's Leadership & Resource Center

SESSION 3

Cute or Creepy: Media's Normalization of Stalking Behaviors
Location: Classroom 1000

Join us for an interactive workshop as we explore the messages we've received about stalking behaviors from popular movies and TV shows and how these behaviors have contributed to the normalization of stalking in our culture. Building our critical media literacy skills will help us challenge harmful narratives and promote violence prevention within our communities.

Presenter:Nora Peterson (she/her), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Women's Resources Center

Facts About Stalking and Domestic Violence
Location: Classroom 1002

Stalking is used as a tool to gain and maintain control of a victim in a domestic violence situation. We will define and explain the intersections of stalking and domestic violence with examples and statistics highlighting these issues.

Presenters:
Osajuli Cravens (she /hers), Courage Connection
Bryce Decker (he /him), Courage Connection

Safety Planning and Mental Health
Location: Starlight Room

The presence of stalking on University and College Campuses continues to become more and more prevalent. Join Counseling Center staff in discussing the impact of stalking on overall mental health. The goal of this discussion is for students, faculty and staff to be more equipped in understanding the implications of stalking on mental health and learn about addressing issues related to safety. Safety planning during times of crisis can be a difficult but essential topic to encounter. While no safety measure is perfect, having the tools to address stalking behaviors can make students feel more aware of their resources, understand their options and make more informed decisions in times of crisis. The Counseling Center professional and student staff will present on these issues as well as engage in conversations with audience members to enhance knowledge in this area.

Presenters:
Emily Barnum (she/her/hers), Counseling Center
Patricia Ricketts (she/her/hers), Counseling Center
Jameelah McCregg, she/her/hers, Counseling Center