It’s On US / Civic Nation: Back To School

As students get ready to go back to campus for the first time in over a year, experts believe there will be an uptick in sexual assault in what is considered to be a perfect storm of those experiencing campus life for the first time and older students wanting to make up for lost time. To combat this, It's On Us, the nation’s largest nonprofit program dedicated to college sexual assault prevention and survivor support, and independent creative agency Mekanism, have created a Back to School campaign to build awareness of bystander intervention education tactics. This campaign is extremely relevant given the recent protests happening at University of Nebraska following a brutual sexual assault, more information here via Buzzfeed, as well as an official Instagram account here. Launching today, the Back to School campaign includes a video PSA narrated by Tony Hawk, as well as a real-world campaign extension. Mekanism worked with local It’s On Us campus chapters to distribute thousands of QR code stickers to be placed on party cups to campuses across the country. Scanning the QR codes leads users to The Bystander’s Guide To Stopping Sexual Assault, a resource that informs students about the different ways to intervene and stop sexual assault. The QR code stickers are designed to empower bystanders to stop sexual assault from happening, primarily through bystander intervention education tactics because it is estimated that at least 1 in 3 sexual assaults have a bystander present (Bystander Intervention Research, Banyard). It's On Us and Mekanism created this campaign with the goal of educating all college students so that as they are having fun and making up for lost time, they stop to take a look around and make sure everyone else is having a good time too.