WellCat Safe Place

Lead Creative Engagement Coordinator

August 2021 - August 2022

I am currently working as the Lead Creative Engagement Coordinator at California State University, Chico’s trauma center WellCat Safe Place. At Safe Place we practice a trauma-informed model allowing us to best help those experiencing sexual violence, domestic/intimate partner violence, and stalking without potentially creating more harm.

As the Lead Creative Engagement Coordinator I manage a small team of junior designers to ensure project delegation is appropriate, content is accurate, designs are accessible, and deadlines met. I design content and community outreach for events, collaborations, and campaigns to promote Safe Place services and honor important events such as Denim Day, Domestic Violence Awareness Month (October), and Sexual Assault Awareness Month (April).

Programs:

InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Procreate, Canva, Google Forms

Social Media

  • WellCat Safe Place Celebrates Pride

    Created in Canva

    Introduction post for WellCat Safe Place Celebrates Pride 2022

  • Know your Pride Advocates

    I researched LGBTQIA+ advocates to include in a Pride post centered on increasing knowledge about advocacy in the LQBTQIA+ community

  • Black History Month

    Black History Month 2022 was themed “Black Health & Wellness.” This introductory post notes the disproportionate barriers people of color face when seeking health care.

  • WellCat Safe Place Celebrates Hanukkah

    Being extremely mindful of cultural inclusivity I completed extensive research on the history of Hanukkah and traditional celebrations in order to make a holiday post that was culturally informed.

  • WellCat Safe Place Celebrates Dia de los Muertos

    I created a Day of the Dead social media post to accompany the “ofrenda” created in the Safe Place office by our team. This posted expelled some common offensive myths around Dia de los Muertos.

Denim Day | April 27, 2022

Denim Day Booklet

Denim Day | April 27, 2022

Denim Day began in 1999 when an Italian court overturned a sexual assault conviction on the basis that the act was consensual because the female being harmed wore jeans that would have been too tight for the person doing harm to have removed them on his own, insisting the female had helped. Every year since, Denim Day has been held the last Wednesday of April (Sexual Assault Awareness Month) to protest harmful stereotypes attached to sexual assault. Started by the organization Peace Over Violence, people are invited and encouraged to wear denim to work or school and start discussions about the misconceptions surrounding sexual assault.

  • I was chosen as the lead for our main sexual assault awareness month outreach event. I began the ideation process with the Safe Place parapro team in early February and ultimately decided to focus on a day long event to be held on Denim Day. Then we began the process of planning out different activities for the day of as well as smaller outreach events that we could use throughout the month to raise awareness for our Denim Day celebration.

  • I came up with the idea for Safe Place to facilitate several Denim Patch Painting workshops throughout April to promote our Denim Day Event. In each workshop participants were able to choose their own eight by ten inch denim square to paint while listening to the Safe Place parapros provide more context on Denim Day and Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Each workshop ended with a mindfulness body scan to follow our trauma-informed practices at Safe Place. Our Denim Patch Painting workshops were a huge success and allowed us to showcase all of the amazing submissions on a clothesline in the center of campus.

  • As part of our Denim Day event I created a booklet full of information on Denim Day, Sexual Assault Awareness Month, how to get involved, resources, and artwork/poetry that was submitted by local artists. I was responsible for writing the majority of the content seen in the booklet, as well as creating the branding style, shooting and editing most of the featured photos, and creating the booklet layout.

View the Full Denim Day Booklet Here

Unity Tree Installation

WellCat Safe Place provides trauma informed services to students, staff, and faculty that have experienced interpersonal violence, stalking, sexual exploitation, and harassment. Unfortunately it is not often that we engage the international students. Together the team decided that creating a welcoming symbol in the office would create an amazing point of collaboration and a clear indicator of Safe Place’s support.

  • The oak tree has long been an important symbol in many cultures, often depicting strength and stability through adversity. Just as the oak tree’s roots dig deep within the Earth and spread great distances, our Wildcat family has come together from all over the world to meet in a place forging tomorrow’s leaders. We recognize and celebrate the beauty found in diversity, and like the dependable roots of the oak, the Safe Place team strives to create a system of support and healing for every Wildcat.

  • Research began by creating a Google Form to collect information from current international students about how to say three different phrases in the native language of their home country. In total we collected 17 different languages to express the phrases Welcome, You are loved, and You belong. The team also chose to include the Maidu language from the Mechoopda-Maidu Tribe to honor the land of the Native peoples on which the Chico State community is built.

  • The team brainstormed how we wanted the information given to us by the International Students Office and the Tribal Relations Office to be presented in our office. We landed on an illustration of an oak tree. Oak trees hold a spiritual significance in many cultures. Included in the roots are the translations of our three selected phrases signifying the interconnectedness of the Chico State community.

  • Our unity tree has been well loved and celebrated by the campus community.

WellCat Safe Place office

Close up of the languages on the tree roots

Initial mock up sketch done with Procreate

Flowers on the Creek

Flowers on the Creek:

In Collaboration with Catalyst Domestic Violence Services 

Flowers on the Creek is an annual event of remembrance for Northern California lives lost to domestic and intimate partner violence. The WellCat Safe Place team often collaborates with Catalyst Domestic Violence Services to facilitate a ceremonial reading of names and stories of the lives lost in the past year before releasing flowers into Big Chico Creek which flows through the center of the Chico State Campus.

Design Elements:

I was responsible for creating several iterations of our promotional poster to be printed and shared on the Chico State campus, in the community, as well as on social media. I digitally illustrated the flower motif seen on all promotional material. I also worked with one of my paraprofessional coworkers to design visually consistent memorial boards to be displayed at the event featuring each remembered individual’s photo, name, and county passed in.