Holly Lovern was hired to fill the second position in August 2016. Cassidy Johnson, the first gender violence services coordinator, said she felt overwhelmed.
The Carolina Women’s Center was given the money to hire a new coordinator in March 2016.
Johnson said the role of the gender violence services coordinator is to provide confidential support to anyone who is impacted by gender-based harassment or violence, sexual violence, interpersonal violence, domestic violence, stalking or other forms of harassment.
“We weren’t sure if the people would use the resource or not or what that would look like, and so when I started working here, I realized that a lot of people were using the resource, and so we recognized that we needed to have not just one person doing this job,” Johnson said.
Although they have the same job title, the two women do not share an office, but Johnson and Lovern do have a shared email address to get back to people as fast as they can.
“Cassidy Johnson did a really good job with keeping up with the people that she saw, but she was really busy all the time,” Anna Taylor, co-chairperson of Project Dinah, said.
Organizations, like Project Dinah, collaborate with the Women’s Center, and Skye Allan, co-chairperson of Project Dinah, said the organization invites the gender violence services coordinators to speak at its club meetings to educate members about the Center, or the different programs and events it organizes.
Project Dinah is a student-led organization offering services, support, education and empowerment about interpersonal violence.
