Creating on-going opportunities to provide a secure campus environment for everyone is the impetus behind Women’s Safety Grant funding available annually through the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, says Kaye Johnson, director of the Office of Human Rights.

Applications are now available for the funds, which Johnson says have been used to provide everything from safety cameras and campus emergency phones to Welcome Week outreach programs, personal defense courses for women, and faculty research into student safety needs.

“The message is that women’s safety is everybody’s issue,” Johnson says. “So these funds are not only for women on campus, they are for our community. Everybody has a part to play in keeping the campus safe – men do, as well as women.”

Johnson says the funds, and the opportunities they provide, empower everyone in the campus community to take at look at safety concerns in their individual areas.

“It ends up creating opportunities to get people talking and looking at their own individual environments,” she says. “It certainly helps address issues that exist but it also raises awareness among people about what may be a safety concern in their own areas.”

Campus Police special constable Rosemary Briscoe helps to run the Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) program and says that funding from the Women’s Safety Grant allows RAD to be offered to women on campus free of charge.

“Funding for the program is so important because it allows students, faculty and staff to attend the sessions and the only commitment we need from them is their time,” Briscoe says of the program which has been offered since 2004. “A lot of students are strapped for money for their schooling, housing and food and if we can offer this to them at no cost, it’s a real relief to them. It takes the burden off the participants.”

Application deadline for the first round of funding is October 31, with initial awards decided by mid-November. A second round of funding will take place in spring 2013, with an application deadline of January 31. Applications are available through the Office of Human Rights, Equity & Accessibility, ohrea@uwindsor.ca, or ext. 2056.