First ever on-campus support group for sexual abuse survivors to open in Feb.

This February marks the birth of the first ever on-campus support and empowerment group for survivors of sexual abuse.

The group, made possible through the collaboration of the Penn Women’s Center and the University’s Counseling and Psychological Services will have its first meeting on Thursday, Feb. 11 at 5:30 p.m. and will continue to meet weekly for the following six weeks.

The primary purpose of the group is to provide a place of support and information for female Penn students who have experienced sexual trauma in the past.

The support group is open to undergraduate and graduate Penn women who have been victims of sexual assault during their teenage or adult years.

“The purpose of this group is to empower women,” the group’s founder and Penn’s Violence Prevention Educator Jessica Mertz said. “It’s all about healing.”

Each meeting will center on a specific discussion topic. The group as a whole will decide upon the topics, according to their collective needs.

Discussion will center on long-term recovery tactics and will likely include subjects like self-esteem, healthy relationships and acceptance.

Talking about sexual assault is crucial to moving past it: “So many women who are survivors of sexual assault have found that talking to women who have had similar experiences is a really powerful healing tool,” Mertz explained.

It is this idea that spurred Mertz, who came to Penn last January to assist with violence prevention on campus, to collaborate with CAPS staff member Deborah O’Neill. The two women founded the group to provide Penn’s women with both a safe haven and a sexual violence seminar.

The decision to make the project a joint effort between the Women’s Center and CAPS was a deliberate one, according to CAPS director Bill Alexander.

Because the group is a “cross between psycho-therapy and an educational group,” there needs to be both an advocate and a therapist present, he explained. Another benefit of the partnership is the combination of the “open and comfortable” feel of the Women’s Center with the professional resources of CAPS.

Alexander is optimistic about the group’s effectiveness. His high expectations stem mostly from his confidence in the women that will run the program.

“Jess and Di will be able to handle anything together,” he said, “and students who participate will get quality education.”

Some members of the student body, however, are not quite as enthusiastic as administrators. Julia Graber, a College freshman and contributor to the feminist magazine F-Word, feels that the group will do little for women who are genuinely in need of psychological help.

“I don’t think that the people who really need this group will sign up for it. The people that go will be the ones that are more or less okay,” she said.

However, Alexander said that the group is “still a prototype and some time is needed to work out the kinks.”

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