Penn Anti-Violence Education (PAVE)

PAVE offers consent & bystander intervention programming to all Penn undergraduates, including those required to complete sexual violence prevention education. These programs include Consent Circles, which takes place during NSO, and interactive workshops offered year-round. 

Since launching in 2016, PAVE has quadrupled its impact, reaching over 3,000 undergraduate students with over 70 programs in ’23-24. PAVE has led workshops for a wide range of communities, including culturally specific student associations, fraternity and sorority organizations, academic and political societies, clubs, college house staff, student athletes, and more.

All PAVE workshops educate and motivate students to build healthy relationships and take action to intervene on harm in their communities. Each workshop is 90 minutes long, and typically led by two peer educators. These sessions are highly participatory, inviting active engagement and diverse perspectives from attendees. This approach allows students to collectively come up with real-world solutions to prevent sexual and relationship violence on campus. Each workshop follows roughly the same structure:

• Opening: educators introduce the topic and set guidelines for participating in the session
• Basics: key topics are discussed and educators teach strategies and skills to address the issues raised
• Application: using scenarios, participants practice putting the skills and strategies to use. This includes time for reflection, questions, and brainstorming. 
• Closing: educators review the resources available to people impacted by sexual & relationship violence at Penn

Peer educators are leaders in their communities, uniquely positioned to educate and motivate their peers to intervene on complex and pressing issues like sexual & relationship violence. PAVE educators recognize that violence is a societal issue in need of community based solutions, and seek to understand systems of oppression that enact violence. All educators receive specialized training in facilitation, consent, recognizing & responding to disclosures of violence, and intervening on relational and systemic harm. 

We’re so glad you’re interested! Here’s some basics about the peer educator role:

• PAVE educators are employed by PVP as student workers, and are paid at $15/hour. We typically hire in March for positions that begin the upcoming academic year. 
• Primary responsibilities include leading Consent Circles (a one-time consent program hosted during NSO) and workshops year round (at least one per month). This averages out to around at least 5 hours per month. 
• Educators must be able to attend training (including 4 all-day sessions the week of NSO) and biweekly meetings year-round. 
• Undergraduate students of all gender identities, sexual orientations, countries of origin, races, ethnicities, and abilities are encouraged to apply. No prior experience or training is required to apply. A work study award is not required for this role.

To be notified when applications open for PAVE, email trizzo@upenn.edu.