When faced with a traumatic situation, such as relationship violence, sexual misconduct or harassment, it can be extremely difficult to know who to talk to and what steps to take to get support. Michigan State University’s on-campus relationship violence shelter and support program, MSU Safe Place, is expanding access to services to those who have experienced intimate partner violence, harassment or stalking through a new crisis chat program.
The crisis chat program is a free and anonymous web-based service for survivors to seek support and learn about available resources. This is a part of MSU’s commitment to increasing help-seeking rates among those who have experienced relationship violence and sexual misconduct.
“We are elated to launch this new crisis chat program to our campus community,” said Holly Rosen, director of MSU Safe Place. “Over the past year, we have expanded our team, which has allowed us to introduce new programs such as crisis chat that will focus on providing support options for relationship violence survivors. We hope this will be helpful to those in crisis and to those who prefer to seek support in this way.”
Safe Place crisis chat is scheduled to go live this month, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Initially, hours will be offered on a limited basis. When the Safe Place crisis chat is not available, survivors will be provided information on how to chat with a statewide crisis chat service that is available 24/7.
To chat, survivors can visit safeplace.msu.edu and click a link that will anonymously connect them with a support person. The support staff will be able to talk with survivors about what they are experiencing, discuss their options and connect them with resources on or off campus to help them navigate their situation at every step of the way.
Crisis chats are not a new concept to MSU. The Center for Survivors — MSU’s free and confidential service to survivors of sexual assault — first launched its web-based crisis chat platform in 2019. Since then, the program has expanded to include a text-based resource built around a 2021 study conducted by an MSU team of researchers and published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
“In its first year of operation, which was 2019, almost as many survivors reached out via crisis chat as used the telephone hotline, doubling the total number of survivors who accessed hotline support,” said Carrie Moylan, lead author of the study and associate professor in MSU’s School of Social Work. “This suggests that college-aged survivors are likely to use web-chat and text-based hotlines, which should encourage other programs to consider adding this service.”
Co-authors of Moylan’s study include MSU colleagues Rebecca Campbell, professor of psychology, and Melanie Carlson, doctoral student in the School of Social Work. Moylan and Campbell also hold key roles on the Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct Expert Advisory Workgroup at MSU.
“We knew that college students would probably use a chat service, but it was surprising and gratifying to see that not only did hundreds of survivors use the chat service, but that chat also quickly grew to be used as frequently as the traditional telephone hotline,” Moylan said.
Through the success of the Center for Survivors’ crisis chat program, MSU Safe Place remains hopeful that those experiencing intimate partner violence will find the support they need within its program.
“Many survivors deal with an abusive and controlling partner alone, not reaching out for support or telling anyone about what they are experiencing,” said Rosen. “We hope that having a crisis chat service will increase options for when and how survivors reach out to our program for support.”
MSU Safe Place is the nation’s first on-campus domestic violence shelter and has provided services for over 25 years. The program has continued in its mission to provide shelter, advocacy, support and counseling services for victims of relationship violence and stalking, while seeking to end interpersonal violence through public awareness and community education. The program provides shelter and support services to approximately 125 survivors each year.