The holiday season is upon us, and so too are themed charity events and philanthropic gift-drives for the less fortunate. But Liz Detrick, this week’s campus celebrity, knows that volunteering for the betterment of society goes beyond the temporal nature of holiday cheer.
Liz, a sophomore majoring in social work and art at Iowa, is heavily involved in volunteer and student advocacy programs around Iowa City and the university campus alike. As a volunteer at the Crisis Center in Iowa City, Liz loves the “hands-on” community aspect that the center offers to all in need of a friendly face or someone to talk to. She is especially interested in helping children who are victims of bullying.
“At the Crisis Center we’re adding on a line for kids that are bullied in the near future,” Liz said. “At the center we do a lot of referrals as well as walk-in counseling, counseling on phone lines and we are also connected to the National Suicide Hotline, called Lifeline.”
In addition to these services, Liz said that the center is also connected to the Johnson County Food Bank. There is an after-hours pick-up for anyone needing immediate assistance after the center has closed for normal business hours. This holiday season, the center’s top needs include financial donations as well as canned fruit, canned meat and vegetables, pasta, soup, toilet paper, baby formula and diapers. If you would like to donate any of these items you can visit here to learn more.
Though active throughout the Iowa City community, Liz also works with the Women’s Resource and Action Center (WRAC) on campus to provide a safer campus environment for both male and female Hawkeyes. Their latest advocacy project is to improve cab company policies to prohibit multiple-party pick-ups if the first party does not feel comfortable riding with strangers.
“We’re trying to put a little bit more regulation on the companies, mainly for the customers,” Liz said. “We just want to prevent an issue before it happens.”
The issue is not just an advocacy pipedream for UI students. The proponents for cab company policy change include University of Iowa Vice President For Student Life, Tom Rocklin, as well as the School Board and City Council. Liz is excited to see school and city agencies reacting positively to the concerns.
“It’s nice because you can see that real change is going to take place,” Liz said.
Recently, WRAC and the Rape Victim Advocacy Program (RVAP) put on a bystander intervention training that Liz promoted through her involvement with a group that aims to end street harassment in Iowa City.
“[The event] was basically to inform people of what street harassment is and ways to prevent it and to intervene when you see it happening, and ways to protect yourself from it,” said Liz. “Just focusing on the people who are being targeted and coming up to them and seeing if they’re okay instead of saying ‘f*** you’ to someone because that’s not going to get people anywhere.”
The group to end street harassment has plans to execute a protest during an Iowa football game as early as next fall. They want to put forth a two-part process that first focuses on the feelings and well being of the victim, but then confronts the perpetrator in order to educate them on the effects of their behavior.
“Showing that people care is the main thing that we’re trying to do,” Liz said.
Additionally, the group to end street harassment wants to broaden their efforts to all forms of harassment and to give a clear definition of what it means to be harassed. Liz said that the group has plans to make a simulator that would allow people to experience different levels of harassment. She said that she wishes there were different videos for different cultures and cities, as harassment takes various forms depending on the people who are experiencing it or perpetrating the unwanted behavior.
In the future Liz would like to use her outreach skills in conjunction with her social work and art majors to pursue a job in art therapy, or to become a coordinator for the Crisis Center.
Though only a sophomore, Liz is active in her community with regards to advocacy and ending street harassment and bullying of all kinds. If you would like to help advocate for victim’s rights with Liz, be sure to join the Facebook group, “Ending Street Harassment in Iowa City.” Acknowledging the problem is the first step towards change.