Description of Request

Submitted By: Anna Slown

The primary mission of the VOICE Center is to provideconfidential support to survivors ofinterpersonal violence (sexual assault, relationshipviolence, stalking, harassment, etc.) Whenclients visit our office, the space becomes increasinglysmall. We worry that our small space isdiscommodious for clients in crisisand may deterclients from seeking services at all. Our current SUB location (Suite 370) is ~480 sqft. This includes2 (two) 120 sqft private offices and 1 (one)240 sqft common space. Though this space sufficedin years past, our team of studentvolunteers has grown from 10 people to 50 people (or400%) in the past 10 years. With 3professional staff and 2-3 student volunteers in theoffice at any given time, it has becomeincreasingly difficult for our staff and volunteersto complete our work with efficiency and minimaldistractions.

All space that we are requesting would serve multiplefunctions for our office. Our ideal spacewould be comprised of the following:

-(2-3) private offices for professional staff to conducttheir regular work (e.g. attend virtualmeetings, meet with long term clients, attend to emails,manage social media, budget,etc.) If we have multiple clients come in at once,these private offices could also be usedas advocacy space.

-(1) designated private office primarily for confidentialclient meetings between clients andstudent volunteers. This space would also functionas space for therapy sessions withsexual trauma counselors and meeting space for TitleIX investigations.

-(1) welcome area with two desks and a conference table.The desks would be foradvocates to sit and greet clients as they come in.The conference table would be usedfor two purposes:

1. support group sessions for survivorsafter hours and

2. educationpreparation meetings between volunteer educators andthe public education specialistduring regular business hours

 

Currently, we only have capacity to comfortably andconfidentially serve one client at a time.When multiple clients come in at once, we utilizeprivate staff offices for advocacy space, butdoing this makes it incredibly difficult to maintain client confidentiality. It is vital that we priortize client comfortabilitybecause the people who access our services arein crisis. It requires incredible bravery to recalltraumatic events in the first place, but the smallnature of our space often makes our clients feel likethey are intruding. This works against ourmission of providing a safe, welcoming, and confidentialspace for survivors to receive supportand advocacy.

 

Resolution

Date: September 10, 2021

Space Management Committee approved the expansion of the VOICE Center into the adjacent room 372, which will allow for renovations to occur that will provide more confidential meeting spaces to meet with and serve clients. As a result of this allocation, the MSU Women's Center has agreed to relocate down the hall into SUB 368, which will be vacated by DISC when they move downstairs into SUB 185.