Different communication teams for different cultures
Personally, the support person doesn’t matter, as long as there is a person that has a similar experience and can be a good listener, that would be enough. But, there are always different cases. Some people probably have a language barrier and they don’t want to talk about this kind of experience in English- that’s understandable too. So, I wish that whatever we are doing now, we should have different communication teams for different regions or different cultures. If this community or team included people who practice different regions, that would be even better for all SMU students, as it would cover more students from different cultures and different countries and that would make all situations better.
Recommendations
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Sign on with a service such as KeepMe.Safe, which connects students with mental health professionals from cultures around the world and promote this service as part of university SV/SA service provision.
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When responding to a disclosure or report of sexual violence involving racially or ethnically marginalized students, provide these students with the choice to work with someone who shares their cultural or racial identity or someone who does not.
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Offer interpretation services to victims/survivors and respondents who are more comfortable communicating in a language other than English and make it known to students that this service is available.