Testimonials
Here’s what people are saying about Speak About It:
“We have tried many different approaches to talking about sexual assault awareness and prevention on our campus and each program left me feeling like we hadn’t quite hit the mark. Most notably, we had missed the opportunity to talk about how relationships on college campuses can be healthy and good. We developed Speak About It because we thought we could tackle the complexities of these issues and this program does just that. It’s powerful, compelling and humorous and watching and listening to the reactions of the First Years made it clear that we’d finally gotten it right. I credit Speak About It with shifting the culture around dating, relationship, sex and sexual assault on our campus in a healthy and positive way.”
- Tim Foster, Dean of Student Affairs, Bowdoin College
“It’s not easy find programming that leave faculty, staff and students all equally happy, so all of us involved in scripting what the First Year Class sees and hears in those crucial first few days on campus feel fortunate enough indeed to have found you. And, while your message and its presentation were already right on target when you came here for the first time last year, those of us who already knew Speak About It were absolutely blown away this year by the subtle refinements and adjustments to your script and performance. Our First Days committee had looked for years to find the best way to talk to our newly arrived charges about what we consider to be the most important and pressing community issue on our campus, and we all feel most fortunate to have found Speak About It. Well done!”
- David Johnson, Dean of First Year Students, Williams College
“The consensus opinion is that Speak About It has been the best program we have presented to first-years in recent memory. We absolutely would recommend it to other institutions.”
- Meredith Harper Bonham, Senior Associate Dean of Students for Strategic Initiatives/Title IX Coordinator, Hamilton College
“The [mid-semester] Speak About It performance was the culmination of three weeks of sexuality programming. It was funny, powerful, personal and relatable. Whatever your orientation, relationship status, or experience, Speak About It offered insights, information, and great one-liners to try out with peers and partners.”
- Clara Porter, Coordinator – Campus Safety Project, University of Southern Maine
“Teaching college students how to ask for consent and how to intervene to prevent a friend from a potentially unsafe situation is incredibly difficult. The cast of Speak About It wowed me with their ability to deliver those critical life skills in a way that is engaging and entertaining while still taking the issue very seriously. It is a fantastic proactive approach to preventing sexual assault and I would love to see every college bring this performance to their campus.”
- Chelsea Rock Phelps, Youth Advocate, Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine
“Speak About It does what many people in the sexual violence prevention field previously thought was impossible: it combines humor, healthy sexuality, and consent in nuanced and entertaining ways while simultaneously treating the issue of sexual violence on college campuses with respect and sensitivity. The dialogue is real and sounds like college students talking, instead of what adults might think college students sound like. Watching the actors of Speak About It perform is fun, engaging, and students will learn valuable lessons to last them a lifetime.”
- Cara Courchesne, Communications and Outreach Coordinator, Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault
“As a senior orientation assistant, I have re-lived orientation four times. Over the past four years I have seen a plethora of presentations, few as engaging, effective, and relatable as Speak About It. The program was clearly designed for college students by students who had been there, and who understood how awesome, challenging, and confusing college relationships can be. Speak About It successfully begins a conversation that few know how to start. Their performance addresses those moments that few people talk about (let alone educators), from the surprising “I like this”, to the more challenging “How did I get here?” and “How do i get out of this?”. My only regret was that they did not come to Bates earlier!
- Kate Maxwell, Bates College ’12
“Speak About It does an amazing job of honoring the voices of survivors of sexual violence while having a kind and honest conversation about consent. Exceptional, too, is that the organizers of Speak About It seek to partner with local sexual assault agencies and always have advocates at their performances. As a community working to end sexual violence, we all need to be talking about healthy, consensual sex and Speak About It is a wonderful tool with which to get started.”
- Katie Kondrat, SART Program Manager, Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine
“[The students] thought it rocked. I have heard nothing but good feedback. Our JA’s have seen a few other options we have tried and they love you guys. They have all said that this was more comprehensive than other people we have brought. They also loved how tailored the performance is to our school. [Speak About It] addresses abstinence, queer stuff, alcohol, consent, bystanders, just wow!”
-justin adkins, Assistant Director of the Multicultural Center, Williams College
