 "Photo: greenriver.edu")
Green River Community College (GRCC) has had a variety of students for years now. From the thousands of international students that come here to the Running Start students that choose to study at GRCC; it’s no surprise that GRCC has made an official welcome to Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, and Queer (LGBTQ) through a program called Safe Zone.
Safe Zone is an ally program that lets the LGBTQ community feel at ease being at Green River by creating ally relationships with faculty and staff. Safe Zone launched at Green River one year ago with about 15-18 volunteer trainees per group. To this date there has been 5 training groups run by Co-Chairs Bryce Hughes and Lisa Trujillo.
One major aspect of Safe Zone is the fact that students don’t have to sensor themselves around faculty that has been trained. “You can be open; you don’t have to hid who you are” said Michelle Marshman, a previous Co-Chair of Safe Zone.
Faculty that decides to go through the Safe Zone training is all voluntary. No one is forced to participate if they do not want to. Those who do decided to be a part of Safe Zone are then trained on how to help the LGBTQ community and their allies. Kelly Blackwood, a previous Co-Chair of Safe Zone commented on how “No one is an expert; they must all go through the training”. Once faculty is trained however, they are then able to welcome students to a safe environment if needed.
The Safe Zone committee has high hopes for what they can become one day. “Our goal is to train the faculty & staff first. Then we would like to be able to train student groups,” commented Blackwood. This goal may be a far reach right now for Safe Zone but “right now, we are mainly a grassroots group,” said Marshman.
To learn more about Safe Zone and see the list of faculty and staff who are trained visit greenriver.edu/safezone.
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