Citing national statistics that found one in five women – and one in 16 men – on college and university campuses will be the victims of either attempted or successful sexual assault, Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman announced her office will fund a $336,000 program to offer sexual assault prevention education to college and university students across Colorado.

“This is something we hear about on the national stage and in this election season,” she said at a Wednesday, Oct. 19, news conference in Pueblo. “I wanted to try to find a silver lining to that and help students learn how to treat each other and how to respond to what we hear.”

Through funding provided by Coffman’s office, the Haven-Understanding Sexual Assault program, created by EverFi, Inc., will be provided at no cost to students at six higher education institutions: Colorado State University-Fort Collins, Colorado State University-Pueblo, Lamar Community College, Otero Junior College, Pueblo Community College and Trinidad State Junior College.

Providing the Haven program for the six institutions will cost Coffman’s office $48,000 per year. Coffman said she plans to fund the program at least through 2020.

The Haven online training program is focused on preventing sexual assault, relationship violence and stalking. This year, EverFi will support 1,300 colleges and universities, reaching over 5 million students and employees nationwide. EverFi Vice-President for Partner Education Rob Buelow said the program is estimated to reach 10,000 students in Colorado this year.

“The statistics tell us that more than 20 percent of women in college will be the victims of sexual assault,” said Coffman. “That is a staggering number of women whose lives are forever impacted. We must take a proactive approach by empowering young women and men in our state to stop sexual assault before it happens.”

Coffman added that national figures show only 20 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 24 actually report their sexual assault.

“When they looked into why they didn’t report it, the main reason was it wasn’t considered a serious enough incident by the victim,” Coffman said. “That is wrong and that’s something we can impact. Every incident of sexual assault is serious enough to report and get help.”

Built with help from leading researchers, prevention professionals and legal experts, Haven empowers students to create safe, healthy campuses while helping institutions comply with federal Title IX training mandates. The hour-long course is interactive and customized to create a tailored, campus-specific experience that connects students with essential resources.

Along with the Haven program, Coffman and EverFi will offer the Sexual Assault Diagnostic Inventory Assessment to as many as 12 Colorado colleges and universities. The 80-item assessment is designed to help higher education institutions comprehensively assess campus violence prevention efforts. Funding the assessment will be a one-time cost of $96,000, said Coffman’s spokeswoman, Annie Skinner.

This effort is led by the office of community engagement in Coffman’s office, which fosters partnerships across the state on public safety and consumer protection issues.