SAFV asking people to do their part

by Trey Wilkinson

“I’m doing my part” is the slogan for a new violence-prevention campaign Sublette County SAFV Task Force (SAFV) is extending to the community in an attempt to reduce violence within the county.

According to SAFV Director Robin Clover, the idea for the campaign came from an intervention campaign in Jackson called “I’d call for you,” with the idea that people would help one another by making a phone call if they knew of a domestic violence situation.

“I wanted to come up with a prevention campaign,” Clover said. “There are three types of prevention – primary, secondary and tertiary. The most common types are secondary and tertiary prevention. Here (secondary and tertiary prevention) the violence has already started. The motivation for our campaign came because we wanted to focus on primary prevention – truly addressing the issues before they start.”

Last summer, Clover started working on posters with a designer who was familiar with the Jackson campaign. The posters will be dispersed throughout the community and will identify community members who are recognizable faces accompanied by one of six slogans.

The slogans propose six ways people can do their part:

• Respect women.

• Practice tolerance.

• Stand up for a safer community.

• Teach respect for others.

• Solve conflict peacefully and calmly.

• Honor personal limits... yours and others.

“We wanted to reach out to the general community,” Clover said. “We selected community members for our posters who are recognizable faces, have longevity here.”

Clover said county officials were intentionally not selected as faces for the posters.

“It’s not about the specific individual; it’s about the type of individual. I really want this to be about community,” she said. “We all have a role in the general community regardless of our profession and we can all make a difference. As a society we have to say we won’t allow this in our communities.”

Clover said a lot of names were discussed for faces on the posters and as the campaign continues other faces will be used. The campaign, which Clover hopes will last for a year or two, will also offer buttons people can wear to show that they’re “doing they’re part.” Post cards are also in the plans.

“I’ll be handing out buttons at the schools, town council meetings... a lot of places I go,” she said.

Clover praised SAFV’s board of directors and the Town of Pinedale for offering funding for the campaign and is hopeful the campaign will continue to expand as time goes on.

“We all talk about stopping violence,” Clover said. “If all we ever do is treat the symptom of violence or the consequences we will not stop it from starting in the first place. Our goal is to get to the root of the cause.”

For more information on this campaign contact the SAFV at 367-6305 or 276-3975.