The University of Arizona will set up a consortium to combat gender violence after receiving a $1.5 million gift from the Chris and Carrie Shumway Foundation.
The new Consortium on Gender-Based Violence will aim to eliminate cultural attitudes that re-create cycles of violence and improve support for survivors.
Housed in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the consortium will also introduce a grant program to find innovative solutions and support the new Survivor Advocacy Program, launched by the Dean of Students Office.
“Violence of any kind, including violence based on a person’s gender, has no place on a university campus, and we are all grateful for this generous gift from Carrie and Chris Shumway,” UA President Robert C. Robbins said.
“The Shumways are giving us the opportunity to fulfill their vision of the UA as a national model for addressing and hopefully eliminating gender-based violence.”
The university has appointed Elise Lopez, assistant director of the Relationship Violence Program, as the new director of the consortium. She sees the consortium as a comprehensive research-to-practice model that can prevent and respond to violence.
“Solutions to violence are not confined to campus. Our students are global citizens, and campus and community are inextricably linked,” Lopez said.
This is not the first time that the Shumways have advocated and invested in the idea of the consortium. In 2017, the Shumway foundation made its first gift of $500,000 to fund campus-wide gender-based violence initiatives.
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