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Texas A&M University
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Green Dots    

A green dot symbolizes a single moment in time that can be used to end perpetration or support victims of power-based personal violence. Through your words, choices, and actions in any given moment, you can add a green dot to our map–interrupting a potential incidence of power-based personal violence, or a red dot–and make a difference. Adding a green dot will increase community safety for everyone. If each of us adds 1 or 2 or 5 or 100 green dots, we will reduce the perpetration of violence–one green dot at a time.

Green dots are divided into two categories: proactive and reactive. Proactive green dots are things people can do to prevent power-based personal violence from happening; reactive green dots are things people can do to intervene in a red dot situation. You may find examples of proactive and reactive green dots below. To access a list of green dots for specific populations, hover over the What’s Your Green Dot? tab at the top of the page.

Proactive Green Dots    

  • Have conversations about ending power-based personal violence with your friends
  • Wear a green dot button one day this week, and explain to at least on person what it means.
  • Do a paper or class class assignment on power-based personal violence prevention
  • Look out for friends at parties, bars, online, and in other high-risk situations
  • Attend power-based personal violence prevention events
  • Believe that power-based personal violence is unacceptable and say it out loud
  • Work to bring an education program to your class, group, team or organization
  • Volunteer with your local service providers
  • Check in with friends if you are concerned about their safety and connect them to help
  • Put green dot information on your Facebook page and your email signature line
  • Tell other people about your green dots
  • Talk about green dots to one new person each week
  • Talk to a male friend of yours about the importance of men getting involved in violence prevention.
  • Attend the next Green Dot Bystander Training.
  • Recommend to 2-3 of your friends that they attend the next Green Dot Bystander Training.
  • Put a Green Dot on your team uniform, and explain what it is at halftime or in fliers that attendees get when they come to the game.
  • Write an article or letter to the editor of the Battalion expressing your opinion about violence-prevention efforts and/or student involvement.
  • Ask a Green Dot facilitator to come to your class or group/team meeting to explain how you and your classmates/teammates can become active bystanders in violence prevention.
  • Talk to a leader in a student organization that you are involved in and recommend that the membership take the Green Dot Bystander Training.
  • Talk to a female friend about the importance of women getting involved in violence prevention.
  • Post a message on Facebook about a Green Dot you did, a training you attended, or any other statement of support.

Reactive Green Dots    

  • If I suspect that my friend has been drugged, I seek professional help.
  • If I saw someone who was intoxicated left behind by her/his friends, I would tell them to take her/him with them.
  • If I suspect that my friend is in an abusive relationship, I ask her/him and provide information about resources available.
  • If I suspect a friend has been sexually assaulted, I let her/him know I am here if they want to talk.
  • If I hear someone yelling and fighting, I call 911.
  • If I see someone spike another person’s drink, I stop them and call police or get someone else to.
  • If I see a friend or stranger grab, push or insult another person, I say something, go get help or get someone else to.
  • If I see a friend take an intoxicated person up the stairs, I stop and ask what is going on or create a distraction to interrupt the situation.
  • If someone appears upset, I ask if they are okay.
  • If I notice someone has a large bruise, I ask how they were hurt.
  • I talk to my friends about consent, and how he or she should wait until their partner verbalizes his/her feelings.
  • If I choose to leave a party early, I account for the people I came with.
  • If I see two men dragging a woman into a room, I call for help and intervene.
  • I will offer to watch my friends’ drinks when they leave the table.
  • If I know or suspect that a friend is in an abusive relationship (physically, sexually, or emotionally), I tell them they can confide in me.
  • I share statistics with my friends about power-based personal violence.
  • If someone needs my help and I don’t have the answer, I tap my resources and find someone who does.
  • If I hear that someone is in a bedroom “in training,” I call 911.
  • I go investigate if I am awakened at night by someone calling for help.
  • If I see someone at a party who has had too much to drink, I ask them if they need to be walked home so they can go to sleep.
  • If a woman is being shoved or yelled at by a man, I ask her if she needs help.
  • If a man is being shoved or harassed by others, I ask him if he needs help.
  • If I hear what sounds like yelling and fighting through my dorm walls, I knock on the door to see if everything is ok.
  • If I hear what sounds like yelling or fighting through my dorm or apartment walls, I talk with a resident advisor or someone else who can help.
  • If I hear an acquaintance talking about forcing someone to have sex with them, I speak up against it and express concern for the person who was forced.
  • I will say something to a person whose drink I saw spiked with a drug even if I didn’t know them.
  • Grab someone else’s cup and pour their drink out if I saw that someone slipped something into it.
  • Call a rape crisis center for help if a friend, acquaintance, or stranger told me they were sexually assaulted.
  • Confront friends who make excuses for abusive behavior by others.
  • Speak up if I hear someone say “s/he deserved to be raped.”
  • I see a couple, whether I know them or not, in a heated argument. One’s fist is clenched and the partner looks upset. I ask if everything is ok.
  • If I know information about an incident of sexual violence, I tell authorities what I know in case it is helpful
Proactive Green Dots for Anyone to Practice
Proactive Green Dots for Anyone to Practice
  • Change your e-mail signature line to include the statement, “Live the Green Dot” and include the link to our Green Dot website.
  • Donate to a local rape crisis center or domestic violence shelter and write “Green Dot Supporter” in the memo line.
  • Hang one of our Green Dot posters on your room or office door.
  • Hang one of our “I’m Green Dot Trained” placards on your door.
  • Put a link to campus or community resources on any website you have access to.
  • Send a mass e-mail to your contact list with a simple message like, “This issue is important to me and I believe in the goal of reducing violence on campus.”
  • Next time you are walking to class with a friend or taking a lunch break with a co-worker, have one conversation about Green Dot and tell your friend that ending violence matters to you.
  • Add the phrase “Ending violence one Green Dot at a time” to your Facebook or Twitter account.
  • Make one announcement to one group or organization you are involved in, telling them about Green Dot.
  • Write a paper or do a class assignment on violence prevention.
  • Wear a Green Dot button and be willing to explain Green Dot to anyone who asks.
Proactive Green Dots for Students
Proactive Green Dots for Students
  • Tell a friend of yours that ending violence is important to you.
  • Add the phrase “Green Dot Supporter” to your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram profiles.
  • Using email, text, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat – send a mass message out to all of your friends that violence prevention matters to you, and give them the link to campus or community resources.
  • Volunteer at the Sexual Assault Resource Center or Phoebe’s Home.
  • If you are concerned that a friend of yours might be a victim of violence, gently ask if you can help and respect their answer.
  • Attend a program or event designed to raise awareness about violence.
  • Create a fund-raiser for a campus or community organization that works to address violence.
  • Look out for friends at parties or where alcohol is involved to ensure everyone arrives and leaves together.
  • Work to bring an education program to your class or group.
  • Hang a Green Dot poster on your door.
  • Hang an “I’m Green Dot Trained” placard on your door.
Proactive Green Dots for Staff & Administrators
Proactive Green Dots for Staff & Administrators
  • Recognize risk factors associated with violence and ensure that faculty, staff, and students are provided with adequate training to respond.
  • Ensure adequate funding for prevention and intervention efforts.
  • Talk with colleagues about your personal commitment to violence prevention and Green Dot.
  • Integrate references to the Green Dot initiative and the importance of violence prevention into speeches and public addresses.
  • Educate yourself and your staff about sexual violence, partner violence, stalking and abuse.
  • Bring Green Dot training to your next staff meeting, organization meeting or retreat.
  • Ensure that you have effective policies in place to assure safety in the workplace and support victims of violence.
Proactive Green Dots for Faculty
Proactive Green Dots for Faculty

Show your support

  • Wear a Green Dot pin or another pin or piece of clothing (could even be a coffee mug that you carry) that has a message of anti-violence. Sometimes just showing your support and commitment can make a big difference.
  • Place a Green Dot on your office door so students know you support prevention and their efforts as bystanders.
  • Hang a Green Dot poster in your office or classroom.
  • Have local resources’ brochures visibly available in your office and/or classroom.
  • ——Insert a related statement on your syllabus
  • Have an endorsement statement of some kind attached to your email signature line, such as “I’m a green dot supporter.” or “What’s your green dot?”
  • Have link to your local service providers’ websites on all the web pages over which you have influence. (See the bottom of the page for local resources.)
  • Three times per semester, simply ask your classes “What green dots have you done or seen lately?” Research tells us that this simple task provides significant reinforcement of green dot behaviors.

Role model

  • Role model respectful language, compassion toward survivors, approach-ability, and looking out for others.
  • Ask your department head or supervisor to bring a bystander training to your whole department.
  • Have a conversation with your colleagues and students about what they can be doing to spread green dots.
  • Where appropriate, bring educational programming on interpersonal violence to your classes.
  • Where appropriate, include topics in your classes that address prevention and intervention of partner violence, sexual assault, stalking and bullying.
  • Make it clear to your students that if they are dealing with violence, you are a safe person to approach for support and referrals.
  • Become familiar with campus and community resources, and make referrals if needed.
  • Consider conducting research that furthers our understanding of violence prevention.
  • Assign readings or papers or journal topics on the issue of power-based personal violence.

Build relationships

  • Build positive, trusting relationships with students; particularly those who may be experiencing violence or other adversities outside of class.

Collaborate

  • Use your relationships and departmental or interdepartmental partnerships to discuss ways in which to support students as bystanders, support survivors, and improve safety for positive outcomes in the classroom.

Share your own experience

  • Create an opportunity to share your own experience as a bystander and how it made you feel, then and now. Or, you may have had a situation when you were at risk and someone did or didn’t help. You may have been in a situation where you saw something and did or didn’t help. Sharing your own experience will help your students process their experiences and become more active bystanders.

Talk to your students about being active bystanders. Talking points for student bystanders:

  • The choices you make matter.
  • You’re not a bad person because you don’t always get involved.
  • There are a lot of options. You don’t have to do something directly. It’s best to pick the option that is best for you, depending on the situation and what’s coming up for you.
  • What makes it hard for you?
  • This is what makes it hard for me…
  • What are ways of intervening that feel realistic to you?
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