Let’s Connect: Questions and Conversations Around Preventing Sexual Harassment in Virtual, At-Home Workspaces and Educational Settings

Workplaces and educational settings look and operate much differently now than they did prior to March 2020 due to many people creating home work spaces to adapt to stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. During the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns over sexual harassment in virtual work and educational settings have sprouted as workers and students stay home and are isolated. How can prevention practitioners pivot the work they’ve done to prevent sexual harassment in in-person spaces to fit this new context? Join PreventConnect and guests from the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, EVERFI, and Futures Without Violence for a conversation exploring possibilities for preventing sexual harassment in virtual, at-home workplaces and educational settings. Guests will discuss unique risk factors for virtual sexual harassment and implications for prevention, as well as brainstorm ways to adapt prevention-focused policies and practices to this new environment.

OBJECTIVES:

• Describe what sexual harassment looks like in virtual workspaces, educational settings, and work-from-home environments
• Identify risk factors for virtual sexual harassment
• Discuss potential adaptations of workplace harassment prevention for a virtual/work-from-home context

HOSTS/FACILITATORS: Ashleigh Klein-Jimenez & Tori VandeLinde, PreventConnect & ValorUS

MATERIALS:

• Web conference PowerPoint slides [PDF]
• Text chat transcript [PDF]
• Links & resources shared during the web conference [PDF]

 

GUESTS:

• Aaron Polkey, Staff Attorney for Outreach and Engagement, Futures Without Violence
• Elizabeth Bille, JD, SVP of Workplace Culture, EVERFI
• Holly Rider-Milkovich, Vice President of Impact & Education, EVERFI
• Adrianna Perez, Prevention Program Coordinator, Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MNCASA)