With help from Washington, D.C., campus and community resources have been combined in an effort to increase services for victims of sexual assault at Penn State.

The U.S. Department of Justice awarded Penn State a grant to target the problem of violence against women last March. Since then, Penn State's Center for Women Students and the Centre County Women's Resource Center in State College have worked together to provide training for various student and staff organizations and to improve response capabilities.

Money from the $451,000 grant allowed CCWRC to hire Jessica Moyer. Moyer acts as a liaison between the State College community and the university. She has developed training programs for the Office of Judicial Affairs, Penn State Police Services, University Health Services, Student Affairs and the Center for Counseling and Psychological Services.

Maureen Jones, director of the grant, said the programs are meant to give students and staff general background on sexual assault, relationship violence and stalking.

"We try and go over most of the generic stuff, like statistics of how many students are affected at Penn State. We also go over legal definitions as well as legal ramifications of committing these crimes," Jones said.

Moyer said the purpose of the training programs is to give tools for staff and students to use if someone tells them about incidents of sexual abuse.

"The more prepared someone is to talk to someone who discloses violence and then to refer them to the various resources available, that can only help them not to panic," Moyer said. "We also want people to know that they don't need to be a therapist to help someone." Moyer said training for members of Judicial Affairs is particularly important.

"Any type of awareness about sexual assault will only help them better understand the cases that come before them," she said.

She said the training will help members of Judicial Affairs to understand common victim circumstances, such as rape trauma syndrome and other reasons victims may be afraid to testify.

"We want to dispel the myths out there so that those myths aren't held against the victim," Moyer said.

Dawn McKee, education and outreach coordinator for CCWRC, said money from the grant is also being used for the "bathroom project," an effort to distribute posters listing the resources for victims of sexual abuse. McKee said the placement of the posters is important because it provides a safe and anonymous way for victims to access information.

The grant also provided funding for the Sexual Assault Response Team, a program which provides a representative from the Center for Women Students, a specially trained nurse and a police officer to assist victims of assault.

The team works together so the victim only needs to tell his or her story once.

Jones said Penn State recently applied for a continuation of the grant and will be notified in October whether the Center for Women Students will receive the grant again.