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Website Mission Membership Benefits

Mission
Betsy's Friends is a unique peer education program designed to educate and support students around relationship violence, sexual harassment, and prevention. Betsy's Friends offers weekly private peer support hours, weekly meetings/events, and semesterly large-scale events about topics such as:
- Relationships
- Being a survivor
- How to help a friend experiencing relationship violence or sexual harassment.
- Navigating resources for survivors on campus, including, but not limited to, identity-specific resources, Title IX, and our Confidential Resource Persons
- Access to free safer sex supplies and period products
- Healthy boundaries and consent

Some recent favorite events include:
- Contraception Bingo
- Speed Friending/Dating with Simmons TaNC
- Safer Sex Kits
- Decolonizing Drag
- Ghosting and Glitter Jars
- Take Back the Night

*A note about privacy v. confidentiality: Peer Supporters can generally keep information that is shared with them private, however, Peer Supporters are required to report to the Title IX Coordinator information they receive about Sexual Harassment, as defined in the University's Sexual Harassment Policy for Students, Faculty, Staff, and Visitors, as well as report to University leadership information they receive regarding unlawful discrimination/harassment, or any existing or imminent danger to the Simmons community. Students who disclose information about their or others' experience of sexual harassment will be connected to the Title IX Coordinator, in which case students can expect to receive an email notifying them of supportive resources available to them. Students are never required to respond to, utilize, or accept such resources.

Membership Benefits
The Violence Prevention, Education, and Outreach (VPEO) Program sits within the REEF Support Center and aims to support student survivors of interpersonal violence. The VPEO is composed of Betsy's Friends, our dedicated team of Peer Supporters, as well as the Violence Prevention, Education, and Outreach Coordinator and the Director of the REEF Support Center, both of who serve as Simmons' Confidential Resource Persons. The VPEO provides confidential support (via the Confidential Resource Persons), peer support, and a variety of survivor-centered programs open to all members of the Simmons community.