SafeZone and similar programs exist at many colleges throughout the country. The goal of the training is to educate those unfamiliar with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues in order to be more helpful and open-minded in understanding difficulties associated with coming out, homophobia and other issues. By becoming more knowledgable of how we can all help decrease homophobia, people who go through this training programs can be more supportive of the GLBT friends, residents, peers and students.
Resident Advisors, Orientation Leaders, Staff, Faculty, and students have all gone through the training and have had great things to say about it!
We ask that if you use any of these presentation materials that you credit WPI BiLaGA and this webpage in your SafeZone. Thanks!
SafeZone Manual 3.4 mb
Use the SafeZone manual as a basis to create your own. This manual is very broad, but we realize that it can't cover everything. If you have an idea of what should be included, please feel free to email bilaga@wpi.edu.
Presentation Slides (QuickTime) 3.5 mb
The slides from the SafeZone presentation. Much less broad than the manual, the presentation follows the Presentation Outline below. It is appropriate for a wide range of audiences. You might consider adding or deleting information depending on your audience.
Presentation Outline PDF, 76 kb
Again, a guide to be used as suggestion for your presentation. Make it personal! Let your audience know that there are real, live students on campus who are affected by the issues you are bringing up.
Close Your Eyes: Guided Imagery Exercise PDF, 84 kb
This guided imagery exercise breaks up the SafeZone presentation we give at WPI. It gives straight allies an impression of what it might be like to be straight in a totally gay world. Includes discussion questions following the exercise.
Group Interaction Exercises PDF, 52 kb
WPI's SafeZone presentation allows for several opportunities to solicit information from the audience. Use this PDF as a cheat-sheet for items the audience should come up with on their own. These exercises are best done on a whiteboard or on giant pieces of paper on the wall. For information on how to incorporate these exercises into your presentation, consult the Presentation Outline above. Contents include:
- How Slang Like "That's So Gay" Makes People Feel
- How Fear Affects Everyone
- Coming Out: What Can Go Wrong
- Coming Out: What Can Go Right
- States That Prohibit Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation
SafeZone Analogy for College Resident Advisors and Orientation Leaders PDF, 44 kb
At WPI, most Resident Advisors and Orientation Leaders go through the SafeZone program. This document makes an analogy between their everyday jobs and their roles as SafeZone Allies.
Download the entire package ZIP, 4 mb
Download all of this information in one .zip file.
Check back here for 2004-2005 upcoming training events.
At the end of each training, participants who feel comfortable doing so may take a SafeZone sticker to place outside of their door or office to let others know they feel comfortable talking about GLBT issues. Watch out for these stickers all over campus as the popularity of the program spreads!
Come to a meeting!
Thursdays at 7pm
Unity House