Prevention, training and support: Fighting sexual violence at UBC

“People are reaching out to our office for all sorts of different reasons,” Sonya reflects. “Faculty are reaching out to consult around how to make their departments safer and how to respond to disclosures. Survivors are reaching out because they need support, they want information around their reporting options, they want accompaniment to hospital or police.” She stresses that it doesn’t matter when in a person’s history they may have experienced sexual violence—if they are at UBC and need help, her office will provide it.

Shilo St. Cyr explains: “Sexual assaults and sexual abuse can start to impact you while you’re an adult or at university, so we will provide support to students, staff or faculty who are dealing with that.”

No doubt it’s a big job, but Sonya and Shilo have years of experience working in the field. Sonya joined UBC after 21 years at the Surrey Women’s Centre, where she spent her first eight years counselling survivors of gender-based violence before assuming the position of Executive Director. Shilo moved to her position on the Okanagan campus after being a Manager of the AMS Sexual Assault Support Centre. Prior to that she worked with the Elizabeth Fry Society, supervising programs that included a low-barrier shelter and treatment programs.

As they work to bring awareness, training and support to the UBC community, Sonya and Shilo want to make one thing clear: they can’t do it alone. “The whole community has to be engaged on this—it can’t just be our offices,” Shilo stresses. “The more people are educated about it, the more people overall feel safe talking about their experiences to reach out and get help. Everyone,” –student leaders, faculty members, fraternities and sororities, athletics, staff supervisors and administrative heads of units—“needs to come together to prevent sexual assault.”