As students of all ages head back into the classroom this week, we all have an assignment: how can we show up for the students in our lives and support youth survivors in and out of the classroom?

Our Askable Adults resources provide excellent tools to help support youth in our lives. You can check out all of those resources here!

Intergenerational partnerships are a key component of the Network’s social change efforts. This past weekend, we co-hosted a sun-splashed gathering of youth and adult colleagues at our second annual Building Consent Culture retreat, along with our partners at WomenSafe and Mosaic . A youth-led team expertly facilitated connecting, learning, visioning and strategizing. Over the coming year, these youth and adults will work together to advance high quality and inclusive sexuality education, and advocate for change in how school communities prevent and respond to sexual harm.

In 2021, the Legislature created the Intercollegiate Sexual Harm Prevention Council. This group is comprised of a wide range of stakeholders including students, prevention educators, university administrators, advocates, and law enforcement. This group is just getting started and is looking at policy proposals, standardizing and sharing data and pursuing best practices for prevention work on campuses. The Vermont Network looks forward to continuing to support this work!

Wishing you a safe and healthy back-to-school season!