College of the Canyons is offering a new women’s group for students Thursday called Womanspace at COC’s Valencia campus in the Student Health & Wellness Center.
Sponsored Articles
The group is hosted by Karissa Valencia, program director for the Domestic Violence Center of SCV, who said the group is free, open to anyone and not for any one group of women in particular.
The first meeting is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday, and it’s scheduled to take place every fourth Thursday of the month, Valencia said.
“We just wanted to be more of an empowering group,” Valencia said, “where women can come together and talk about any of the issues that they’re facing.”
Part of the impetus for a group to talk about women’s issues came about as a result of an outreach event at COC’s Valencia campus, where Domestic Violence Center of Santa Clarita Valley officials were promoting the Clothesline Project at a community event, Valencia said.
The Clothesline Project offers abuse survivors, whether it was experienced as an adult or child, a chance to create an image on a blank shirt that either encapsulated their experience or how the person felt with respect to how their situation now.
The project drew a popular response, and after numerous students created shirts, both organizations sat down to look at how they can campus increase awareness about the resources students have at COC.
“We’re trying to boost awareness of women’s issues in general,” said Larry Schallert, interim director of the Student Health and Wellness Center at College of the Canyons, “domestic violence, as well as sexual assault… we’re trying to give women support… and let them know what their resources are.”
A similar version of the group was launched in January at COC but as a domestic violence group, and it failed to gain traction. Officials are unsure why, but they’re now hopeful that a more open format in a casual setting, but also one that’s closer to student resources, will help women feel more welcome.
Another change is that now the group is being co-led by both the college’s experts and Valencia, who manages outreach programs for the local center as an advocate.
There will be free food at the lunchtime event, there’s no required attendance and all female COC students are welcome. “It is casual, it’s an open group, so students don’t have to feel committed (to attend) each month,” Valencia said.
“We’re not using this group as an educational class, in (the traditional classroom) sense,” she said, adding the group could discuss empowerment from a variety of sources, and that “an open discussion” is planned for the first meeting.
Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com.