New Campaign Uses Art to Engage Students

"What happens next?" asked the Peer Leaders at the front of the classroom.  Students at Baruch College hovered around an image of a neighborhood street. Figures facing one another were drawn in, and white "thought bubbles" above each person waited to be filled.

In November, Day One's Peer Leaders launched a new campus initiative. "It Happens Here" is an innovative, youth-led workshop merging graphic art and a domestic violence curriculum as the entry point for discussion and peer education. All semester, Peer Leaders have been working diligently to design panel art, setting up scenarios of abusive relationships and intimate partner violence on college campuses. Students then have the opportunity to determine a new outcome for the situations represented.  In a workshop facilitated by Day One's college Peer Leaders, students engage in a creative reframing of the artwork and transform them into healthy interactions. 

"Let's take it slow," wrote one student, adding her own tips for healthy communication.

Peer Leaders will present "It Happens Here"  throughout the rest of the semester at local universities. Congratulations to our Peer Leaders on a successful campaign!