RESOURCES:
EMU Women's Resource Center (WRC)
TRANSCRIPTION:
Caroline MacGregor: This is 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline MacGregor, your host of All Things Considered. And with me today is Dr. Kim Ferrell. She is the Coordinator of the Women's Resource Center here at Eastern Michigan University. We are going to be talking about their programs and resources, but we're also going to be discussing a very important event later this fall, which is the 35th anniversary of Eastern Michigan University's Women's Resource Center. First of all, welcome, Dr. Ferrell!
Dr. Kim Ferrell: Thank you! Thank you so much!
Caroline MacGregor: So, Dr. Ferrell, tell me a little bit about when the Women's Resource Center here at EMU was established.
Dr. Kim Ferrell: Sure. So, the Women's Resource Center was established at Eastern Michigan University by a group of students who had started a student organization called the Women's Space. They came together as a collective because they noticed that there were barriers to the lack of resources on campus for women. And so, when they came together with an idea, they pulled together resources for women as a student org. And then later on, there were the Student Government and other entities, as well as other supporters at EMU, that pulled together the funding to actually create it into the center that it is today.
Caroline MacGregor: What sort of barriers are we talking about that women were running into or people here on campus?
Dr. Kim Ferrell: Number one, help for women who are parents, student parents, and then there was a major barrier to feminine products, feminine hygiene products, the lack of having, if you will, pads and tampons freely for women to have. But then, they noticed that sexual health products, such as condoms, were freely given to students. And so, the group came together and said "No, we we have a lot of needs that the women are not getting here. And it's up to us to pull together some of these resources." And so, other than that safety needs, also safety alarm devices for students who don't feel quite safe walking across campus from their cars or from their classes.
Caroline MacGregor: Is this different from pepper spray?
Dr. Kim Ferrell: It is.
Caroline MacGregor: It's completely different, right?
Dr. Kim Ferrell: It is because we partner with the EMU PD in order to get the pepper spray to the students because they have another policy and things of that nature with that program. So, as an offset of that, we created a safety kind of device as an alarm that we order and then give that to students as well for them to feel safe.
Caroline MacGregor: Obviously, the safety is huge everywhere today. What are the other programs that you're involved in? I know you have crisis support programs among others. Correct?
Dr. Kim Ferrell: Absolutely! The Women's Resource Center is looked upon to have more of the awareness and prevention educational programs. So, we normally go through our programs when we're strategically developing them per month, so it kind of aligns with what we're doing here in the United States. So, for instance, October would be the month of breast cancer awareness.
Caroline MacGregor: Okay.
Dr. Kim Ferrell: So, we will have Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And then, within the month of October, we will also do domestic violence awareness prevention and intimate partner violence prevention type of educational programs. At the start of semester, knowing that the first few weeks of school on college campuses are the weeks in where a lot of students report harassment, sexual assault, and things that nature, so to combat against that, we do a sexual health fair, sexual health educational type of conference style event called "Sex in the Dark." It is a provocative title, but what we do is provide accurate information to answer the students' questions by way of, we call them, "sexperts". So, we have a panel of experts who are licensed and certified to answer the students' questions in regards to sexual health care and healthy relationships. And so, we do that early on in September. And then, we can jump through to the next year, which looks like in the beginning of the year in January, we do a human sex trafficking awareness type of event to inform the students exactly what is going on, in regard to human trafficking and human sex trafficking and child sex trafficking.
Caroline MacGregor: I'd like to hear a bit more about that. I know that's been an issue across the U.S. and, of course, across the world. But when you say sex trafficking here locally, what would that mean?
Dr. Kim Ferrell: Locally, we basically do a little research about what's happening, of course, globally and the U.S. And then, we actually scale it down to what's happening in Michigan, so that people will know what's happening in our own backyard. And so, we give them statistics. Generally, we try to partner with EMU PD. There was a point to where we had some speakers and things of that nature that will come to address bystander: how to report it, how to be aware of someone that is in a sex traffic type of position, the places where not to go, being more careful and more aware of high traffic areas. There was a time when we had a conference, a mini-conference online, that specialized some speakers that came to talk about being cognizant of these white vans or black vans that were stationed close to schools and things of that nature or in neighborhoods, what that means, and that could signal sex trafficking. So, it's those intricate little details that people are not aware of how to be safe, how to look out for those type of things, and then what to do: how to report it, who to contact. So, those are the conversations that we've in the past with having those type of events.
Caroline MacGregor: Let's talk quickly about academic enrichment.
Dr. Kim Ferrell: Yes.
Caroline MacGregor: Perhaps you could give our listeners an example of some of the professional development tools that you give young people here at EMU.
Dr. Kim Ferrell: Absolutely! Thank you! Thank you for that question! So, the professional development looks more of giving students opportunity for leadership, and that's in volunteerism, that's in internships, that's also with mentoring. And one time in the past, we had a peer mentorship program, and it was peer-to-peer. So, we would train the students, and then they could go into the classrooms and then educate their peers on certain topics. Normally, there would be topics around rape culture, sexual assault, and domestic violence. Those were tools that we had for students to be involved and also for professional development. Of course, we hire in students. We always have space for student workers in different capacity, so whether that's in the office, educating the students on the different resource products that we have, because we also have pregnancy tests and things of that nature that we hand out for free so anything to do with women's health and well-being and feminine products and things of that kind of nature. So, we do demonstrations there. Also with academics, well, we also advise the students, so they can walk in and ask us questions and get some guidance about their academics, their grades, what to do in regards to balancing home and school and what that looks like with their lifestyle. And so, we do that as well. We also offer scholarships. We have a Women of Excellence Scholarship Award that students can apply for if they have a certain GPA and can explain their financial condition and why they need that source of funding. They can actually get a scholarship. So, that we have ample amount of opportunities.
Caroline MacGregor: I was just going to say. All these opportunities are really tremendous resources you're offering.
Dr. Kim Ferrell: Yeah. We offer referral service, so if a student come in with different needs that the university does not have for them, then we give them one of our resource guides, and we walk them through the guides on what the community have to offer them to service them. Yeah.
Caroline MacGregor: Well, there's so much more to discuss. We'll have to certainly have you back to discuss certain programs more in depth. But just to wrap up, tell me a little bit more about the 35th anniversary coming up in October. This is of EMU's Women's Resource Center.
Dr. Kim Ferrell: Absolutely! So, the 35th anniversary is to highlight the years of impact that we've had at Eastern Michigan University. So, we're looking at a working theme of endless impact, building community, culture and legacy of empowerment. So, this is to honor the ways that our center have impacted the student culture, the campus, as well as the community and honoring the workers, the coordinators, the students that started the organization that it grew and developed to this great center and the department that we have today. And then, to highlight some of the massive amount of contemporary work that's being done every day in that center, that includes the events and programs that are very educational and things that we have, like the Women's History Month is a huge celebration in the month of March. We do programming every week to empower our women students.
Caroline MacGregor: And we've done stories.
Dr. Kim Ferrell: Yes, yes! Absolutely, absolutely! So, advocacy, support, just enhancing the center's visibility.
Caroline MacGregor: And you're expecting a fairly big turnout for this event, aren't you?
Dr. Kim Ferrell: Absolutely!
Caroline MacGregor: You know, not just people on campus, obviously, but others. Leaders in the community?
Dr. Kim Ferrell: Yeah, absolutely! We have a lot of leaders in the community, community advocates, community activists, politicians that have reached out about this celebration. It's going to be in a form of a banquet ceremony and awards ceremony.
Caroline MacGregor: Okay.
Dr. Kim Ferrell: And so, it's going to be very impactful. Yes, we're looking for it to take place on Tuesday, October 27 at 5:00 at the Student Center building in the ballroom on the second floor. Plenty of seating. We will be RSVPing for those that want to attend. So, it's a big deal! It's a big celebration! And we look forward to it!
Caroline MacGregor: All right! Well, we'll mention this again coming up closer to the time. But, Dr. Kim Ferrell, thank you so much for joining us today! It's been fascinating!
Dr. Kim Ferrell: Thank you so much! I appreciate it!
Caroline MacGregor: I've been speaking with Dr. Kim Ferrell. She's the Coordinator of the Women's Resource center at EMU. This is 89.1 WEMU, Ypsilanti.
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