Dear Skidmore Community, Hello! Just in case you haven’t heard of us, we wanted to introduce ourselves! The Center for Sex & Gender Relations is an awesome (well we think it’s awesome!) resource on campus for all of your sex and gender concerns and questions. Did you know that the Center is open every afternoon? During office hours, you can purchase condoms (10 for $1), dental dams (free!) and lube, check out our awesome library, or talk to a Peer Advocate (PA). Students come to talk to us (always confidentially) about a variety of topics ranging from safer sex to sexual and gender identity to relationship issues and more. Students should also know that we are a peer to peer anonymous resource on campus and can offer support and resources to students who may have experienced sexual or gender-based misconduct. Though we have to report statistics, your identity is kept anonymous you can learn about both the resources and options available to you as you begin your healing process.
An exciting new direction for The Center is a focus on Prevention and Educational Programming. While programming has always been important, we are really diving in this semester and hope to offer multiple programs every month throughout the semester. In order to make this happen, we are excited to be partnering with one of our favorite off-campus resources, Wellspring. Wellspring, formerly Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Services of Saratoga County, provides victim services in legal advocacy, crisis intervention, medical advocacy and much more. Additionally, Wellspring offers a 24/7 hotline. The advocates who answer the hotline receive very specialized training including an intensive 40 hour required training before ever answering a call. Wellspring hotline advocates are required to continue their training and education throughout their tenure at the agency. Given the availability and expertise that Wellspring brings to campus, The Center has decided to terminate our weekend hotline and invite students to use the Wellspring hotline anytime they have a question or experience that they need help with. This decision will allow The Center to concentrate our efforts on Prevention and Educational programming and will give students greater access to hotline services. Additionally, we hope this partnership will allow us the opportunity to welcome advocates from Wellspring on campus to provide victim advocacy services as well as outreach services in the future. We are truly excited to welcome Wellspring to our community and know that their presence at Skidmore will assist us in our ultimate goal of creating an informed, safer and healthier Skidmore!
Also remember that Skidmore offers an after-hours on-call counselor from the Counseling Center as well as an after-hours on-call nurse practitioner from Health Services while school is in session. These resources are well-utilized by students and we continue to be grateful for the level of commitment both Health Services and the Counseling Center bring to our community. We encourage students to continue to use these resources for any type of emergency that pertains to sex, gender, and more.
We are looking forward to an amazing semester! We are excited to continue providing you with the information and products you need to have safe, healthy and consensual relationships and look forward to an exciting partnership with Wellspring. We are located on the 3rd floor of Case and would love for you to come by and say hi! Watch out for our programs and Racy Readers! If you have questions, please contact us at sgrcenter@skidmore.edu.
Thanks for your continued support!
The Center