Green Dot Violence Prevention Strategy – Trinity College

A Green Dot is the moment it takes to make a choice to do something, anything to make it less likely that someone gets hurt or that shows the people around you that you don’t tolerate violence and are doing your part to prevent it.

The Green Dot Violence Prevention Strategy is a national program that trains students, faculty, and staff in bystander intervention to help prevent instances of power-based personal violence (PBPV).

PBPV is a form of violence where one individual asserts power, control, or intimidation over another to cause harm, including dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and harassment. When these moments occur on our campus, they’re called “Red Dots”.

A “Green Dot” is any action, choice, or attitude that stops, counters, or displaces a “Red Dot,” reducing the likelihood that someone will be hurt.  The Green Dot Violence Prevention Initiative promotes safety for everyone in the Trinity community, but also sends a clear message that we do not tolerate violence on our campus.

Everyone will be a bystander at some point. Green Dot provides the resources and tools to help you to be a safe and effective one.

Green Dot encourages individuals to choose to do something when they see a “Red Dot” happening or that could happen. This prevention strategy works on the individual level to create a safer and caring community. Momentum is created when each individual in the Trinity community makes a small choice to take an action against violence, and role modeling this to friends, roommates, team members, club members and Greek Letter Organizations. We learn to behave in alignment with Green Dot and campus values.  These aligned small choices become Trinity’s new cultural norms:

• Trinity College does not tolerate power-based personal violence.
• Everyone can safely do something to prevent all forms of PBPV.

Currently eight Trinity College staff, faculty and an alumna are Green Dot certified trainers. The WGRAC director, Laura Lockwood, coordinates the Green Dot Team and the Initiative. We strive to bring Green Dot’s safe bystander intervention skills and values to the entire campus through interactive workshops, presentations, and activities. This includes presentations to all faculty, staff and administration. This only works to reduce violence and survivor-blaming while shifting the culture if the entire campus participates.

There are reactive and pro-active Green Dots:

• Reactive: Taking action in the moment, using the 3 Ds: Direct, Distract, Delegate
• Proactive: Green Dot promotion carries the visible message throughout the campus: social media, coffeehouse Open Tabs, student led activities, collaborations with athletics, Greek Life, student organizations and student leaders; displaying Green Dot merch on one’s laptop, phone, in the work area, and in the classroom.

Proactive highlights of spring semester ’26 were Green Dot’s collaborations with athletic teams:

• Trinity’s Track & Field Team Invitational, See photo.  Athletes used green batons and students distributed Green Dot merchandise to attending coaches and teams. Track & Field Coach John Michael Mason—a Green Dot Team member—led this initiative and spoke about Green Dot to all in attendance.
• Green Dot Ice Hockey Game, with the Women’s Ice Hockey coaches Keith Maurice and Maya Roy. Team members stuck Green  Dot stickers on their helmets while students  Charlotte Bizup ’27, a goalie, is currently the Green Dot Intern, housed at WGRAC.

To learn more about our activities please follow us on Instagram @trincollgreendot

Some content adapted from Alteristic Green Dot: www.alteristic.org