Scenario: Welcome to your first college party! After some time spent at the party, you have noticed one of your peers has had too much to drink, seems to be holding hands with a fellow partier, and they are now making their way into a private room. What do you do??
Culture of Care, a campus wide and student-led organization, is focused on creating a culture on the Bloomington campus in which students demonstrate “care” for one another through promoting behavioral change and raising awareness in the four core areas of:
- respect,
- drug & alcohol awareness,
- mental health, and
- sexual well-being.
My freshman year specifically, I observed several students going through hardships ranging from not knowing effective methods to deal with the stress of school to questioning whether or not they gave the proper consent during their last hook up. Now as a junior and the Co-VP of Programming for Culture of Care, I now have the courage to step up when I see wrong-doing, intervene in scenarios that could possibly have a negative outcome, and provide campus or community resources to students who could use assistance.
Since 2012, we have hosted Culture of Care Week the week before Little 500 where we raise awareness of our four core areas through engaging events like free yoga sessions, guest speakers presentations, poetry slams, and my personal favorite, the "Cash Cab" inspired rides to class in golf-carts.
Three years later, our organization is asked to provide educational workshops, we distribute merchandise (fun fact: we are famously known on campus for our tanks, which you can receive during Culture of Care Week), and we were recently featured on the Big Ten Network! Check out the video below.
Our responsibility as college students is to make sure our fellow Hoosiers can have fun and also lend a hand when difficulties arise in our everyday lives. We’re looking forward to having you on board as an executive member or committee member next year to help challenge the bystander effect by NOT assuming that “it will eventually be taken care of” or "someone will do something."
Step up. Speak loudly. Take action. Get involved.
For more information about Culture of Care, check out our: Website | Twitter | Facebook