The Movement Peer Educators held a Candy, Condoms and Consent event for Valentine’s Day in Talley Student Union. The Movement Peer Educators are a group of students trained in interpersonal violence prevention and education who advocate for a safer and more equitable campus community. 

Lily Smith, a fourth-year studying applied mathematics and director of events for the Movement Peer Educators, said the group holds the tabling event every Halloween and Valentine’s Day.

“We work to prevent interpersonal violence on campus,” Smith said. “We feel like consent is an important topic that gets raised a lot around those holidays. But it’s important, we’re around and we just really enjoy passing out candy and talking to different people and asking them questions about consent. And we also provide free safe sex supplies. It’s just a good time to do it.”

Katherine Fowler, a first-year studying meteorology and a facilitator in training, said Candy, Condoms and Consent provides students with critical information about consent, access to safe sex materials with candy and other goodies. 

“I hope it provides students with access to safe sex materials and provides them with some preventative education and education on consent as well because it’s very important,” Fowler said. 

Students visiting the table could spin a wheel with numbers and then be asked a question about consent based on the number they landed on. 

“We’ll ask them things like, ‘Person A doesn’t consent to sex, but person B forces them into a sexual act. If person A orgasms, does that change their consent?’” Smith said. “Just different scenarios around consent and how that changes the context of the situation. ‘Does consent apply to relationships outside romantic relationships?’ The answer’s yes, of course. You have people thinking about how consent is present in their everyday lives.”

Smith said she hopes the event positively impacts the student body and spreads awareness about consent and sustaining healthy relationships. 

“I hope people leave not only with candy and safer sex supplies, but also thinking about consent more throughout their day, thinking about how it impacts them and how they can use it in their relationships,” Smith said. “And also spread awareness about our group and what we do on campus. We also offer workshops and a few other events around interpersonal violence prevention topics, so it just kind of brings more turnout to those and get our name out there on campus.”

Safe sex supplies and stickers for the event are funded by the Women’s Center, Smith said. 

“I also actually applied for something called the Condom Collective,” Smith said. “I think it’s through Trojan, it’s through a group called Advocates for Youth. And so I applied for that last semester and this semester and they sent me 500 free condoms. We use those.”

Fowler said the Movement Peer Educators will also be holding Take Back the Night on April 13 from 5-9 p.m. in Talley Student Union. The group encourages everyone to come. 

“Take Back the Night is about raising awareness around sexual assault, and how it affects people’s lives,” Fowler said. “We’ll basically have a speaker, a survivor speak out and then about halfway through we’ll have a march around campus. So I would definitely recommend showing up, you don’t have to sign up or anything. We want as many people there as possible marching with us and speaking out for victims of interpersonal violence.”

More information on The Movement Peer Educators can be found here.