Safe Zone Training: Making FGCU a Better Community Britanny Boll, Sierra Coffers, Elizabeth Kyllonen One Online Section of ENC 1102 Composition II, College of Arts & Sciences AND one online section of EDF 2085 Intro to Diversity for Educators, College of Education Instructors: Sheila Bolduc-Simpson (SBS) and Dr. Mark Simpson (Dr. S) INTRODUCTION Would you like to feel safer on campus? Would you like to have a more accepting school towards all people with different walks of life? Florida Gulf Coast University makes this a possibility with their Safe Zone Training program. Safe Zone is a program to help better accept and appreciate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, community; also commonly known as the LGBT community (Safe Zone Training). FGCU is taking a step in the right direction when it comes to educating students in the LGBT population. FGCU, just like any other college campus, hosts a mix of students and some are part of the LGBT community. FGCU hosts the Safe Zone training workshops in order to show support and appreciation for the people of LGBT population. Although these workshops are optional and done at your own free will, I feel that it should be broadcasted more so that more people can take advantage of these opportunities. For example, I had no idea of this program until it was presented to me as an extra credit opportunity in one of my classes. It would have been something I would have been interested in before if I had heard about it previously. Better informing students on what this training entails and means for the LGBT community would really help people take a step towards accepting ones differences. FINDINGS When the students surveyed were asked about whether or not they had even heard about Safe Zone training, 17% of students have. Of those 17% of students, 50% of students were actually willing to participate in something of this matter while 50% was possibly willing to participate in the training. Also, of the total of 12 students that participated, 75% said that this program should be offered on campus even if they personally choose not to complete it. One participant who said that the program should not be offered on campus said that the program should be a mandatory class on campus. 50% of people interviewed said that this training would help them become more accepting and comfortable with people in the LGBT communities, 33% said they don’t know if the training would help them feel more comfortable, and 17% said they don’t think the training would help them feel more comfortable with people in the LGBT community. Only 25% of the 12 participants know someone in the LGBT community personally. METHODS Surveyors: Choose 10 questions to ask participants. Added demographic questions into survey. Used the Survey Monkey software to create the survey that was distributed Printed the survey to ensure no questions were changed or modified. Asked students around school to participate in survey. Explained that the survey was being distributed to learn more about the interest of training regarding the LGBT community. ABSTRACT This action research focused on Safe Zone Training in the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community. Of the twelve people that were interviewed 17% of them already had some sort of knowledge of what the LGBT community was. From the 17%, 50% of them were possibly willing to participate in training. Of the complete twelve people surveyed, 75% said this program should be offered on campus even if they do not choose to take it. Further findings also show that 50% of the students also said that training would help them feel more comfortable and accepting of the LGBT community. One of the conclusions made was that students didn’t even know FGCU offered Safe Zone Training and that as a school we need to help spread awareness and let students and members know about it. WORKS CITED "Safe Zone Training." Gay Alliance. The Gay Alliance of Genesee Valley, Web. 17 Feb "Safe Zone Training Manual." North Dakota State University. North Dakota State University, 9 Oct Web. 17 Feb "What Is Safe Zone?" What Is Safe Zone? New School, Web. 17 Feb "Florida Gulf Coast University." Safe Zone. Florida Gulf Coast University, 02 Feb Web. 17 Feb "Safe Zone." Student Involvement & Leadership Center. University of Kansas, n.d. Web. 17 Feb LITERATURE REVIEW The Gay Alliance explains that in 2002, 19 percent of students and faculty felt unsafe. Safe Zone training is offered at many different schools and even offered online to take at your leisure. North Dakota State University offers the training manual to Safe Zone train your school and community. The manual takes the person through three steps to learn about Safe Zone and how to become a Safe Zone presenter for future. The three things to remember when doing Safe Zone is to “Be Active, a Good Listener, and Involved” (Safe Zone Training Manual). “What is Safe Zone” is a website designed by New School that explains to you process by process of how to start your own Safe Zone Training at schoolThis school also incorporates the queer/questioning and intersex community, also known as LGBTQI (What Is Safe Zone). Florida Gulf Coast also has a webpage designed in order to brief people on what this program means for the student body of FGCU. It shows all the courses that the school offers for people to take and multiple activities to help become more involved (Florida Gulf Coast University). At the University of Kansas, they have a Safe Zone program to not only help their university better ally with the LGBT community, but also the whole city they are situated around. They offer training to the students and people around the university for more people to become allies with the LGBT community. They also have an address just for this topic of Safe Zone training and the LGBT community within the school (Safe Zone). CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Safe Zone training program is offered to help lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students feel more accepted by their peers. Florida Gulf Coast University and many other schools for that matter offer this program up to their students, but only some people actually hear about or take advantage of this workshop. The researchers conducted a survey to better test and see how much FGCU students actually know about this program to get a better idea of how to broadcast it. Although the majority of students felt that it should be offered on campus, a smaller amount of that percentage felt that it should be required. The results show that not many students knew about this program or were ever really offered to take up the opportunity. It is clearly shown that FGCU needs to do a better job of informing the community of how to get involved. It is also important that actual members of the LGBT community speak up and stress the importance of completing this program to their peers.