Bystander intervention program invites Olympic boxer to speak

By GLYNIS HART
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CLAREMONT — The Green Dot program, which educates bystanders to intervene in potentially violent situations, will be hosting an event for the community at Stevens High School on Sept. 28. Olympic boxer Ray “Merciless” Mercer, who won the gold medal in the 1988 Summer Games, will speak. 

The event is free and open to the public. National Institute of Modern Martial Arts dojo on North Street will assist with the event.

 Mercer entered boxing at age 23 while he was serving in the Army and became the most decorated Army boxer in history. He’s also a friend of Dustin Warburton, who works with the Green Dot violence prevention program in Claremont. The program works to reduce domestic violence, including violence against children, sexual assault and stalking. 

 “When I came on board here, Ray said he’d love to be part of what I’m doing,” said Warburton. “He’s going to talk about what made him interested in Green Dot and why he’s here.” 

 Green Dot began on the University of Kentucky campus. Founder Dr. Dorothy J. Edwards took the idea of bystander empowerment and education to stop violence and built the program, which teaches people how to intervene when they see a a violent situation developing. A lot of times, people fail to act because they don’t know what to do. Edwards’ idea was to change the culture on campus, making violence less normal and teaching people to be comfortable with intervening. 

 The program has been operating in Claremont for three years, teaching people how to safely prevent violence. Deb Mozden of Turning Points Network, which sponsors the program in Claremont, said a young man who had gone through their training intervened when he was driving downtown, and saw a woman being yelled at by a man. He pulled his truck over and asked the woman if she needed help. 

 “We ask people to practice the three D’s,” said Mozden. “Delegate, distract, deflect. For instance, if you were at a bar and you saw a violent situation developing, you could delegate by asking someone to go talk to the woman, or you could ask the bartender to do something. To distract, say you started singing loudly, or asked them a question.” 

 The “green dot” idea is a visual interpretation of changing a culture to make violence less likely. On a map covered by red dots, representing incidents of violence, green dots represent bystander interventions or violent incidents that were prevented. 

 “You can do something to make sure that incident of violence doesn’t happen,” said Mozden. “If you see it and get involved, that also tells that survivor that somebody cared enough to intervene.” 

 The process of changing the culture takes time. Warburton and Amanda Mace, Turning Point Network’s program director, describe the violence they’re targeting as “power-based.” Domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking all have the goal of controlling the victim by creating fear, which gives the perpetrator power. When bystanders intervene or refuse to normalize violence, that takes the power away from the perpetrator. 

 According to a five-year study by Dr. Ann Coker of the University of Kentucky, high schools that implemented the program saw the number incidents of violence drop by half in the fourth year. Edwards said, “Not only did they see reductions in sexual assault, these reductions applied to both perpetration and victimization, and they saw similar results for sexual harassment, dating violence, and stalking.”

 In Claremont, the program began in 2015 with a four-year grant, so it’s been implemented here at no cost to local taxpayers. Green Dot runs trainings for bystanders, and has also done a poster campaign with local businesses, where the green dot sticker shows a business offering to shelter someone from violence. The grant from the Centers for Disease Control includes measuring the success of the program and its effect on the number of violent incidents. Green Dot is also planning a Youth Summit in the schools to help kids deal with violence and bullying. 

 Alteristic.org, a nonprofit founded by Edwards, has become the parent organization for Green Dot. According to the website, “ The most important role individuals can play in prevention is to find small ways to set safe social norms among their peers, norms that are intolerant of violence and support assisting others. When these norms are set and maintained through small daily choices, violent and destructive acts are less and less likely to occur.” 

 In other words, they’re trying to make it more normal for people to refuse to accept violence. 

 Mozden translates: “Don’t overthink it, just respond. That’s the message we want out there.”