Middle Way House is amping up its men’s outreach program following the end of sexual assault awareness month.
Middle Way House has less than one dozen male volunteers in crisis prevention services — meaning people may not be able to have a choice of which gender they can speak to about their experience.
“We see a lack of male advocates as a barrier to delivering services to male survivors,” Crisis Intervention Specialist Sean Fleck said.
Fleck joined Middle Way as a volunteer in August 2015 as part of his social work degree. He worked at the shelter for an entire year after being placed there by his advisor.
Through his work at Middle Way, Fleck has met with male survivors of sexual violence. Each time, the men had requested to see a male specialist.
The men’s outreach program is a tool Middle Way House is using to advertise their services to male victims as well as to recruit more male volunteers.
People who experience violence can be any gender, which is why it’s important to make services available to everyone, Crisis Intervention Specialist Mary Jones said.
“It’s a human problem,” Jones said. “It’s not just a female problem. The more people we can get involved the better off we’ll be.”
Men have typically not been involved with shelters like Middle Way House because of the history of these types of organizations. They were first established by women, for women, Fleck said.
“We’ve seen a paradigm that men are perpetrators and women can only be victims,” Fleck said. “That idea has become ingrained in our culture.”
Fleck also said it has to do with the idea of masculinity in general. When men call seeking help from an organization, they’re often met with disbelief about their experience. People think men are exaggerating what happened to them, or insinuate they could have left the situation if they wanted to, Fleck said.
“There’s a strong idea of what masculinity is in our society, and people in this line of work are not immune to society’s ideas about masculinity,” Jones said. “That can be a barrier.”
According to Middle Way House, 2.78 million men in the United States have experienced sexual assault or rape. In addition, more than 1 in 4 men have experienced intimate partner violence in the U.S.
Middle Way House started their outreach program to reach these male victims.
The program is seeking to establish community and campus partnerships with other shelters, student groups, dorms and greek life. It wants to make its services more accessible to students and members of the community.
The next training session for Middle Way House volunteers is June 11. Those interested can complete the volunteer application at middlewayhouse.org.
