The Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center hosted the Green Dot Conference on Saturday, an event focused on preventing power-based personal violence.

The conference marked the end of Relationship Violence Awareness Month.

More than 50 students attended the conference, which lasted from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event drew a wide variety of participants, including freshman Mary Bifulco, who volunteers at the RSVP Center.

“I was interested in volunteering for something with some actual purpose,” she said. “And we thought it’d be good training.”

Bifulco attended the conference with her friend, fellow freshman Allie Halbert, who also volunteers with the RSVP Center. Halbert said she wanted to learn more about Green Dot.

“We’re around it all the time,” Halbert said. “It’s just a good cause.”

According to the RSVP Center, power-based personal violence is defined as “a form of violence that has as a primary motivator the assertion of power, control and/or intimidation in order to harm another.”

The three main types of power-based personal violence the Green Dot Conference focused on were sexual, partner and stalking violence.

Although the conference centered around some hard-hitting topics, the mood of the day was hopeful for participants such as RSVP Center Coordinator Danica Wolf.

“There are far too many people every single day that are experiencing violence,” she said. “This opportunity is right in front of us. This is our shot to leave a legacy in our community.”

Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity Vice President Danny Forman attended the conference to help spread the message throughout the Greek Life community.

“I think the issue is something that needs to be talked about more because there are so many people on this campus that don’t realize the magnitude of it,” he said.

Forman got involved with Green Dot last spring, after he studied power-based personal violence for a class project. He is working to reorganize an outreach program of Greek Life advocates against power-based personal violence. Forman said his goal is to eliminate the issue among the Greek Life community.

“You take a group that has a negative stereotype on this issue and try to eliminate it while trying to educate and make this community better,” he said.

Green Dot is a movement that stresses a positive act can prevent an act of violence. Wolf described the Green Dot concept by showing a map of MU’s campus, marking it with red dots to represent acts of violence. She also placed green dots on the map, illustrating that for every red dot someone can do something to counteract violence.

There are two types of green dots: proactive and reactive. Reactive green dots are reactions to a potentially violent situation, such as someone being taken advantage of at a party.

“Proactive green dots are little things that you are doing to make sure red dots don’t happen,” Wolf said.

Examples include planning ahead to make sure friends stick together at parties or checking up on someone who might have had too much to drink.