April 08, 2009
Student club nominated for Nonprofit Collaboration Award
TOPICS members raise awareness of violence against men, women and children
TOPICS (Training, Outreach, Prevention, Intervention, Counseling and Support), a Clark University student group that educates Clark students, the Colleges of Worcester Consortium, and the Worcester community about dating and domestic violence and provides free, confidential services for local victims, has been nominated for a Nonprofit Collaboration Award from the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network (MNN).
The group's nomination is based on their past collaborative efforts with the Rape Crisis Center of Central Massachusetts (RCCCM) and Males Advocating Change (MAC) to attract, educate and engage women, men and students in the effort to end violence against women, men and children. The three worked together on the Central Massachusetts White Ribbon Campaign Event in February. Members of the Clark group have also created a first-in-the-state collegiate chapter of MAC, as a program of TOPICS.
While the group has to wait until May 1 to find out if they will receive the Nonprofit Collaboration Award, TOPICS members are busy participating in local events that draw attention to the problem of dating violence.
The group will collaborate with RCCCM and MAC for "Take Back the Night" a candlelight vigil and walk beginning at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 9, in Red Square on the Clark University campus, 950 Main Street, Worcester. TOPICS students and their advisor David Roth (a Clark University alumnus, Class of 1984) will travel to Washington, D.C., from April 13-15 to represent Clark, and Worcester, at the National Conference on the Primary Prevention of Men's Violence Against Women: Men & Women as Allies. The group will also play a major role in the Taking Steps to End Violence Against Women and Children Walk, to be held in Worcester on Sunday, April 26.
According to Roth, "The student directors of TOPICS have shown tremendous progress in engaging both male and female students in their efforts to end sexual assault and abuse."
Roth says that events the TOPICS group participates in "have been instrumental in helping to bring the issue of violence against women to the forefront of younger adults in the county."