Waubonsee Community College and the Aurora-based Mutual Ground signed a memorandum of agreement, formalizing a long-standing partnership that provides for services for survivors of, as well as prevention of domestic and sexual violence.
Located in Aurora, Mutual Ground serves the greater Aurora area, southern Kane and all of Kendall County. The agency is one of the oldest and largest domestic violence and sexual assault service agencies in the state.
The signing took place on Friday at Waubonsee’s Sugar Grove campus, in front of a room full of Waubonsee administrators, faculty and staff, Mutual Ground board members and staff, local politicians and community members.
"Waubonsee has long considered Mutual Ground to be a trusted community partner, dating back to its inception in the 1970's,” said Kelli Sinclair, Waubonsee Dean for Counseling, Career and Student Support. “My counseling team and I continually rely on the expertise of our Mutual Ground colleagues to serve students in need. Mutual Ground has also been a great resource for our instructional units (particularly Human Services) as well as for student life programming. Our partnership has always been one of informal support and collegiality.”
Sinclair explained that recent national and state legislation aimed at preventing sexual violence prompted the college and Mutual Ground to formalize their partnership.
“Mutual Ground's role is more important than ever before as we work together to educate our students on sexual violence prevention, college support services and community resources for sexual violence survivors,” she said.
Michelle Meyer, Executive Director of Mutual Ground, commended Waubonsee for “taking a proactive approach” for supporting awareness, prevention and intervention on behalf of students.
“To acknowledge how important this relationship is to us means a lot,” Meyer said. “We’ve been partners for a really long time.”
As part of the memorandum of agreement Mutual Ground will serve in the “confidential advisor” roles specified in the Illinois Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act (PA 99-426), and the college will provide public and confidential private space to Mutual Ground as needed.
