Beginning this fall, Health & Wellness Education is making updates to our community’s violence prevention strategy to strengthen our proactive power. This coming year, the MiddSafe hotline is ending, and a new group named PEAR (Peers Educating for Affirming Relationships, which combines the resources of both MiddSafe and the Mental Health Peer Educators, will take its place. This change allows our community to bolster our efforts in the prevention of interpersonal violence through increasing professional staff focus on Green Dot Bystander Intervention and the promotion of healthy relationships more actively and effectively in partnership with student peer health educators.
Ending the MiddSafe hotline and shifting the Mental Health Peer Educator program comes with both sadness for the end of two beloved peer advocacy and education groups and hope for what this makes way for in the future. This change is happening because over the past several semesters hotline calls have decreased by over 90% and participation in key Mental Health Peer Educator programming have decreased by 80%, according to internal record keeping in Health & Wellness Education. This reality makes it challenging for advocates and peer health educators to practice their skills and indicates that we need to redirect our focus to the promotion of healthy relationships and the prevention of relationship violence.
While we can’t know exactly why participation and calls have decreased, one consideration is the increase in professional support services at Middlebury. Since 2014 (the year the MiddSafe hotline began), Middlebury has greatly increased professional resources for campus-based medical services (300% increase in nurse practitioners and 200% increase in certified Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners), mental health support (230% increase in licensed mental health counselors) and violence prevention efforts on campus. Middlebury also introduced professional Residence Director staff who respond to and support students in crisis. Additionally, significant strides have been made with respect to communication between and resource sharing across Civil Rights and Title IX, Public Safety, on-call staff rotations, the Center for Health and Wellness offices and more. Lastly, in 2020, Middlebury implemented 24/7/365 access to counseling and medical services for undergraduate students in addition to brick-and-mortar services. Student use of these resources continues to increase based on usage data across these offices.
It is important to note that resources for supporting students and friends of students who have experienced power-based personal violence and mental health challenges, among other issues, continue to be available on campus and in our community. They include these four resources:
Counseling Services - counseling@middlebury.edu, 802-443-5141. Individual counseling, group counseling and workshops available to support students or friends of students with a broad range of challenges including interpersonal conflict and power based personal violence among other topics.
Health Services - healthservices@middlebury.edu, 802-443-3290. Medical appointments to support students who have experienced impacts of power based personal violence, STI testing, pregnancy testing, referrals to local providers for specialized care, Sexual Assault Nurse Examinations and other health needs.
TimelyCare - go/TimelyCare.Medical and counseling appointments available 24/7/365 for students experiencing challenges related to power based personal violence among other topics. Atria Collective (Addison County advocacy hotline) 1-800-388-4205. Community agency providing advocacy services over the phone and by appointment. If needed appointments can be arranged to be hosted on campus or other places in the community.
This coming year in Health & Wellness Education, students can expect to see opportunities to get involved in Green Dot through an increase in in-depth training opportunities and collaborate with peer health educators on healthy relationships education and events.
Green Dot Bystander training, a fun, interactive, in-depth violence prevention training, has returned to campus after a COVID-19 hiatus. This is a great training for students who are interested in being student organization leaders, team captains, student employees, other kinds of leaders and people passionate about preventing power-based personal violence. Sign up at go/GreenDotBystander/.
Check out opportunities to collaborate with the new peer education group, PEAR (Peers Educating for Affirming Relationships). Follow them on Instagram @pear.midd. This group provides events, workshops and conversations about how to support healthy relationships with ourselves, each other and our whole community. Invite them to an upcoming meeting or event you are hosting. DM them on Instagram or email Health & Wellness Education (healthandwellnessed@middlebury.edu) to get in touch.
Health & Wellness Education welcomes discussion and ideas about this change. Students, staff and faculty are welcome to reach out to us at healthandwellnessed@middlebury.edu. A final thank you to our students who have been and are currently a part of peer health education and advocacy. The power of peer education and support is unparalleled, and we cherish our opportunities to work together!
Editor's Note: The final four paragraphs of this op-ed have been added on 9/17/25 to better reflect the author's intended submission.
