For all in-person programs, we strive to have our On-Scene Advocates, who are trained in domestic and sexual violence crisis intervention skills, present for our prevention programs to provide support for participants who might feel overwhelmed or triggered by our programming content. Our zoom-based live programs also have an On-Scene Advocate that a participant can private message with.
School-Based Sexual & Dating Violence Prevention Programming
Building Healthy Relationships (BHR)
BHR is an interactive curriculum, usually occurring over three to nine sessions, designed to prevent dating and sexual violence. Specially trained educators tailor presentations to fit the time frames and specific needs of each school. This program is offered to area middle and high schools. BHR covers the following evidenced-based prevention topics: gender roles and stereotypes; power, control, and equality across relationship behaviors; boundaries; sexual violence and affirmative consent; and bystander intervention. Our objective is for participants to leave with the shared goal of preventing violence in the future and in possession of the skills to do so. If you are interested in scheduling a BHR program, please contact our Prevention Program Coordinator, Lindsey Badger, at prevention@middlewayhouse.net.
The course has been adapted to Canvas for MCCSC for Fall 2020; students and their parents who are enrolled in the course can view it there.
Elementary Prevention Programming
Our part-time Prevention Specialist, Kyla Wargel, along with board member and prevention volunteer Peg Smith have developed the Elementary Prevention Program (EPP) curriculum. Lessons and activities focus on: understanding and demonstrating empathy, learning about and embracing differences, developing skills for emotional regulation and conflict management, and identifying boundaries and corresponding safe and appropriate interactions. If you are interested in violence prevention programming for elementary-age children in your life, please contact Kyla at kyla@middlewayhouse.org.
Click here to view the EPP curriculum guide for in-person sessions. Virtual adaptations can be made available for Fall 2020; please contact Kyla for more information.
Youth-Serving Agency-Based Sexual and Dating Violence Prevention Programming
For area youth-serving agencies, we draw upon our BHR and EPP core lessons to bring a wide range of interactive activities, discussions, and projects to at-risk youth. Youth-serving agencies we have worked with include: Banneker Center, Bloomington Afterschool Network, Boys and Girls Club, Bradford Woods, Girls, Inc., Monroe County Public Library Teen programs, Prism Youth Community, Rhinos, Stepping Stones, and the Youth Services Bureau. If your youth-serving agency is interested in prevention programming, please contact our Prevention Program Coordinator, Lindsey Badger, at prevention@middlewayhouse.net.
Click here to view the recording of the recent MWH/Monroe County Public Library "Ask Anything" Program.
Campus & Community-Based Adult Sexual and Dating Violence Prevention Programming
For campus and community-based groups, we provide adult-oriented prevention education. Examples of campus and community-based settings we’ve served include mental health and addictions groups, Indiana University classes, Monroe County Public Library adult programs, individuals incarcerated in the Monroe County Jail, in addition to conferences, festivals, churches, service provider meetings and open-to-the-public events. If your campus or community group is interested in prevention programming, or there is a prevention initiative you would like to see in our community, please contact our Prevention Program Coordinator, Lindsey Badger, at prevention@middlewayhouse.net.
Ongoing Support Groups and Peer Advocacy Rooted in Primary Prevention
Teen Peer Advocates (TPAs)
TPAs are local high-school age youth empowered with information, resources, and peer advocacy skills to support youth survivors of sexual violence, dating violence, and human trafficking in our community. We hold a six-part Teen Peer Advocacy training program each semester. We also organize an MLK-inspired social justice project every January to prevent teen dating and sexual violence. If you, or a youth in your life, are interested in becoming a Teen Peer Advocate, please contact our Prevention Program Coordinator, Lindsey Badger, at prevention@middlewayhouse.net.
Queer Talk Series
Queer Talk is a series of events for people who identify on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Events include one-off game nights for people to meet peers and build connections; open book clubs to get to know others in the queer community while reading community care, healing, and anti-oppressive books together; Role Playing Games (RPG) campaigns to practice our skills in crisis intervention; and Queer Peer Advocacy support groups to strengthen our safety nets and to make room for our own healing processes, while supporting others. Dates and times for book clubs and open games nights are listed below and are also listed in our events tab on Facebook. Please reach out about Queer Peer Advocacy Support Groups or RPG by emailing lindsey@middlewayhouse.org. March-May programs are facilitated via zoom – we will contact registrants by email if this changes to in-person programming.
Queer Talk Book Club
For the first session, we will be reading and discussing the Combahee River Collective Statement. For the remaining sessions, we will be reading Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, which is available as an e-audio and e-book.
Sunday Book Club Session, 1:30 – 3pm:
March 27th
April 10th
April 24th
May 22nd
April 10th
April 24th
May 22nd
Queer Talk Gayme Nights
Sunday, March 6th, 6:30 – 7:30pm
Saturday, April 23rd, 6:30 – 7:30pm
Friday, May 27th, 6:30 – 7:30pm
Saturday, April 23rd, 6:30 – 7:30pm
Friday, May 27th, 6:30 – 7:30pm
Queer Talk RPG (Role Playing Games)
Bi-weekly Friday nights (program is currently full)
Queer Peer Advocacy
Bi-weekly, daytime weekend meetings; for intake, email lindsey@middlewayhouse.org.
Please register for the Queer Talk Series events at https://forms.gle/nnn4vQat8bFwx78U8 and mark which programs you are interested in.
Letter Writing to Incarcerated Survivors
Our monthly letter writing events provide participants with the opportunity to write letters of support to incarcerated survivors of domestic abuse, sexual violence, and human trafficking. Participants can write a loved one or hear and select a survivor’s story. All ages are welcome, and participants can join in-person or online.
Our in-person events are held on the third Thursday of each month from 7-8pm at the Monroe County Public Library in Meeting Room 2A; all supplies will be provided, and no registration is required. If you have any questions, please contact Kyla at kyla@middlewayhouse.org.
Our online events are held over Zoom on Saturday, January 22, February 19th, March 19th and April 23rd from 2-3pm; participants need to provide their own paper and writing utensils. Participants can drop letters off at Middle Way House to be mailed or can provide their own envelope and stamp. To register and to receive the Zoom link for our online events, please complete this google form. If you have any questions, please contact Linds at lindsey@middlewayhouse.org.
These events are held in collaboration with MCPL’s NonProfit Central, New Leaf-New Life, the Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project, All-Options Pregnancy Resource Center, the IU Middle Way House Chapter, and Bloomington PRIDE.
Prevention in Practice Workshop Series
January 10, 9 – 10am – Supporting Teen Survivors & Understanding Mandatory Reporting
January 14, 9:30 – 10:30am – Community Resourcing
January 24, 9 – 10am – Accountability 101
January 28, 9:30 – 10:30am – Understanding & Intervening in Teen Dating Violence
January 29, 12 – 1pm– Non-judgmental Harm Reduction for Self-harm
January 29, 2 – 3pm – De-escalation 101
January 31, 9 -10am – Building a Crisis & Mental Health Toolkit
February 4, 9:30 – 10:30am – Teen Healthy & Unhealthy Relationships with Adults (DV laws, addressing power imbalances, how to be a safe mentor)
February 4, 10:30 – 11:30am – Mandatory Reporting & Teen Empowerment 102- Scenarios & Practice
February 6, 6:30 – 8:30pm – Safety Planning 101/102 (Practice space)
February 12, 12 – 1:30pm – Supporting a Friend Who Has Experienced Harm: A Role Play Space for Anyone (co-listed as part of our Accountability & Mediation series)
February 21, 9 – 10am – Community or Workplace Mediation & Facilitation 101 (co-listed as part of our Accountability & Mediation series)
February 25, 9:30 – 11am – Understanding Consent & Laws About Sexual Violence
February 26, 12 – 1:30pm – Bystander Intervention + Supporting Friends Who Have Done Harm: A Role Play Space for Anyone (co-listed as part of our Accountability & Mediation series)
February 28, 9 – 10am – Boundaries 101
Through the spring, the Middle Way House Prevention team is providing workshops and skill-up spaces for community members who want to be part of the solution as we work to end violence together. These workshops are especially relevant for folks in helping and healing professions, as well as anyone who works with youth (parents of teens and tweens included!).
These programs complement our in-school Building Healthy Relationships programs and give adults around youth the equipment to be part of changing the culture of violence. Programs are also relevant for those who wish to transform the culture of violence in their workplace and interpersonal relationships as peer advocates.
The workshops are interactive and will invite you to consider real-life application and build skills with others in your community. Free and open to all. Questions? Contact lindsey@middlewayhouse.org. All January programs are facilitated via zoom. Please register here to receive the Zoom link: https://forms.gle/Es5PqWCWj8nT4SFRA.
Building Healthy Organizational Relationships: Community Accountability and Mediation Series
One of our commitments to move toward being an increasingly anti-oppressive organization and working toward ending violence together with our communities is to build skills to acknowledge our own harmful impacts, work toward creating boundaries and safety for those harmed, and building opportunities for growth for all involved. We will center these workshops on addressing harm that would not typically be criminalized – and sometimes is not productively dealt with at all in our community and organizational spaces: oppression, microaggression, power-over strategies, and conflict.
Through the spring, the Middle Way House Prevention team is providing workshops and skill-up spaces for community members and individuals from our organization and others in helping and healing professions, as well as individuals who wish to support the interpersonal relationships of members of their communities as peer advocates. These workshops are interactive and will invite you to consider real-life applications and build skills with others in our community. Free and open to all.
Workshops
January 24, 9 – 10am – Community or Workplace Accountability 101
February 12, 12 – 1:30pm – Supporting a Friend Who has Experienced Harm: A Role Play Space for Anyone
February 21, 9 – 10am – Community or Workplace Mediation & Facilitation 101
February 26, 12 – 1:30pm – Bystander Intervention + Supporting Friends Who Have Done Harm: A Role Play Space for Anyone
March 4, 9:30 – 11am – Accountability to What?: Moving Values to Practice in an Organization
March 21, 9 – 10am – Organizational Accountability Logistics: A Power Mapping & Brainstorm Space on Building Accountability Buy-in, Organizational Accountability Statements & Practices, and to Determine Strategies to Work at Different Scales (Small Teams, Across Teams, and with Organizational Leadership)
March 26, 9:30am – 2:30pm – Supporting Accountability Teams: A Role Play for Facilitators and Support Networks In-training
Book Club
February 22 – May 17, 6:30 – 8:00pm every other Tuesday
Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation by Adrienne Maree Brown. The book is available as an ebook through the MCPL hoopla account (available for free with your library account). Contact lindsey@middlewayhouse.org if you do not have a free MCPL library account and need a different way of accessing the book.
March 8, Sections: What is and isn’t Facilitation; What is and isn’t Mediation; Assessments.
- Additional homework/What to expect: Come with reflections on your most closely connected networks, using the assessment tools.
March 22, Sections: Black Feminist Wisdom
- What to expect: A Values-to-Practice Dialogue
April 5, Sections: Fractal Facilitation; Fractal Mediation; Intentional Adaptation Facilitation; Intentional Adaptation Mediation
- Additional Homework/What to Expect: Come with ideas for role play scenarios that might flourish with these types of facilitation/mediation, expect to work in pairs and small group practicing facilitation and mediation styles. Practice will be messy and move us toward growth.
April 19, Sections: Nonlinear/Iterative Facilitation; Nonlinear/Iterative Mediation; Interdependent/Decentralized Facilitation; Interdependent/Decentralized Mediation
- Additional Homework/What to Expect: Come with ideas for role play scenarios that might flourish with these types of facilitation/mediation, expect to work in pairs and small group practicing facilitation and mediation styles. Practice will be messy and move us toward growth.
May 3, Sections: Transformative Justice/Resilience Facilitation; Transformative Justice/Resilience Mediation; Creating More Possibilities Facilitation; Creating More Possibilities Mediation
- Additional Homework/What to Expect: Come with ideas for role play scenarios that might flourish with these types of facilitation/mediation, expect to work in pairs and small group practicing facilitation and mediation styles. Practice will be messy and move us toward growth.
May 17, Sections- Book Review (reflect on your notes, highlights and dog-eared pages and bring passages that moved your facilitation and mediation practices the most)
- Additional Homework/What to Expect: Consider what you want to bring to the closing circle for facilitation/mediation. We will use this space to look back at what we’ve learned and look forward at how we might translate toward practice in our anti-violence workspaces. As always, practice may feel messy and reach us toward growth.
Preview/Summer Look-ahead
Accountability: Creative Intervention Toolkit Workbook – May 31 – July 26, 6:30 – 7:30pm every other Tuesday.
Supporting Accountability Teams: A Role Play for Facilitators and Support Networks In-training (scenarios vary, once a month in June/July/August- 4-hour workshops).
Questions? Contact lindsey@middlewayhouse.org.
All Accountability and Mediation events are facilitated via zoom. Please register here to receive the Zoom link: https://forms.gle/qZJwZVtNCUJMvEPg7.
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