This story contains mentions of sexual assault

Students painted art and sipped mocktails at a self-care workshop on Tuesday focused on spreading awareness of sexual assault.

The Health and Wellness Center partnered with the Office of Student Engagement to create the Paint & Sip Self-Care Workshop event to spread awareness of sexual assault.

“Coming together as a campus is really, really important,” Katie Keys, the project director of sexual violence prevention, said. “[It] gives us the opportunity to … take care of each other.”

Keys said OSE and the Health and Wellness Center were both organizing their own version of Paint & Sip before combining them into one event.

“[They were] planning a Paint & Sip for the same time period [as the Health and Wellness Center],” Keys said. “So we got together and decided, ‘Why not kill two birds with one stone?’”

According to Keys, the mocktails were included in the event as a part of the Alcohol and Sexual Violence Prevention Program, which was initally a grant from the government before becoming an independent program.

“Honestly, it’s one of our most successful programs,” Keys said. “People say that, like, ‘Well you were drinking then maybe it’s your fault.’ … We want to, just, nip that in the bud.”

The Sexual Violence Awareness Prevention and Response on Campus program collaborated with the Health and Wellness Center to help with the mocktails, according to Keys.

“If you are sober, you’re able to make clear coherent decisions,” Keys said. “You can act as an active bystander in a particular [dangerous] situation.”

Second-year transfer studies student Asteros Irons said the event was a “great time.”

First-year transfer studies student Kailee Page said she came to the event in a “spur of the moment” because she wanted to talk with more students.

“I’m … one of those anti-social, social anxiety people,” Page said. “I need to socialize more and events like these are the best way to do that.”