Project AWAKEN is a federally funded grant program at Tech. AWAKEN addresses sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking on Tech’s campus through prevention and education efforts. 

Mission Statement: Tennessee Tech University’s Project Awaken is dedicated to educate on preventative practices and provide services to victims of power-based violence to promote a campus community with enhanced safety. When occurrences of sexual violence, domestic violence, and stalking occur, comprehensive, compassionate, and trauma-informed victim’s services will be provided. 

Why is this important?

Multiple studies across the United States have found that one in every four female college students, and one in every sixteen male college students will experience rape or attempted rape by the time they graduate college. This knowledge paired with the statistics that over 90% of sexual assault victims on college campuses do not report the assault demonstrates the need for programs similar to Project AWAKEN. Tech is by no means exempt from these problems, a 2014 study on our campus found Tech to be consistent with the national average. Finding that approximately 25% of students have experienced an attempted or completed rape. Tech has made steps to combat the problem of sexual violence on our campus by bringing in Project AWAKEN.

Project AWAKEN is working to increase awareness of the issue of sexual violence, promote advocacy for all who are affected, increase knowledge of the problem in our community, empower survivors, and build a nurturing environment for survivors. 

 

This project was supported by Grant No 2017-WA-AX-0049 awarded by the Office of Violence Against Women, US Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women.