January and February are national months of recognition for the following types of power-based personal violence, which adversely impact individuals, groups, and communities across our  nation and world: 

• • January 2024 marks the 20th annual National Stalking Prevention & Awareness Month. This is a call to action to recognize and respond to the serious crime of stalking. On the Texas A&M University campus alone, 19.4 percent of students (n=3,140) indicated that they had experienced at least one type of stalking behavior since enrolling at the school; 7.4 percent of these same students were the recipients of stalking behavior more than once and sustained fear for their safety and/or emotional distress as a result (Association of American Universities Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct, 2019).

• • January 2024 marks the 14th annual National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. It is a time to raise awareness about the different forms of human trafficking and educate communities on how to identify & respond to it. According to the Attorney General of Texas (2021), there are approximately 234,000 victims of labor trafficking in Texas at any given time, and approximately 79,000 victims of youth and minor sex trafficking in Texas at any given time.

• • February 2024 is designated as Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. Since 2018, Health Promotion has observed programming related to Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month by extending the discussion to adult relationships (e.g. intimate partner violence, dating violence, domestic violence). Both stalking and human trafficking can be classified as warning signs or types of dating violence, based on the relationship of the offender to the victim; one of our goals is to illuminate this fact in our January programming, and then use our time in February to each students that dating violence consists of multiple abuses, which may be physical and/or non-physical, rooted in power in control.  

Health Promotion assumes an active role in educating on and raising awareness of all forms of interpersonal violence and how experiencing these crimes adversely impacts the well-being of our students, faculty, and staff. We strive to offer educational and awareness programming that independently identifies stalking, human trafficking, and dating violence as forms of interpersonal violence, but also emphasize that they can intersect with each other and other forms of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. We will continue to theme our discussions around self-care and community care, as stalking, human trafficking, and dating violence happen in every community but the warning signs are often missed, ignored, or minimized, resulting in adverse health outcomes on individual and societal levels.  

 

If you or someone you know is being impacted by violence or abuse, we encourage you to contact the following confidential resources on the Texas A&M campus and surrounding community. These agencies work together with other local, state, and national organizations to provide protections to anyone who has experienced or witnessed violence & abuse. Where applicable or desired, they can also help connect students, faculty, staff, and third party visitors to Texas A&M University with our Title IX office to discuss additional options and support measures:

• • Baylor Scott & White Medical Center. This is the only medical center in Brazos Valley that currently has 24/7 on call forensic nurses. Survivors who are seeking medical care and may want to pursue a forensic exam are encouraged to go here, to minimize retraumatization. The Sexual Assault Resource Center dispatches a state-certified advocate to provide trauma-informed support during the hospital intake and medical processes.

• • Scotty's House. Contact for support with any suspected or known instance of child abuse & neglect.

• • Sexual Assault Resource Center of Brazos Valley. Contact for support with any instance of sexual violence.

• • Twin City Mission, Domestic Violence Services. Contact for support with any instance of dating violence, domestic violence, intimate partner violence, or relationship violence.

• • Unbound Bryan College-Station. Contact for support with any suspected or known human trafficking in Brazos Valley

• • University Health Services. Texas A&M students: contact for more information on physical and mental health services. This includes, but is not limited to, individualized counseling, support groups for survivors, medication & pharmacy services, emergency contraception, PrEP and PEP, and longer-term post-care following a forensic exam.