Vanderbilt athletics is joining the fight against violence toward women with an initiative called Athletes Against Assault.

Formed this past August, Athletes Against Assault is an organization composed of student-athletes from each of Vanderbilt’s 15 athletics teams, as well as advisers from the athletics department and the school’s Project Safe program that provides educational outreach and response services for victims.

Though the student-athletes are from different teams and hardly knew each other before being selected for the organization by each of their head coaches, they have assembled to serve a common purpose.

“We are trying to raise awareness among our teammates and the rest of campus, and see if we can stop violence against women,” said basketball student-athlete Alan Metcalfe.

With two other organizations on campus already dedicated to the same cause as Athletes Against Assault (Men Promoting a Solution and Peer Educators of Project Safe), Project Safe looked to athletics to help spread the word around campus even more quickly.

“We wanted more voices on campus talking about violence against women, and we know athletes are well respected and are a great way to get that message out on a larger scale,” said Project Safe’s Kacy Silverstein.

Although the organization is still in its infancy, the group has already accomplished quite a bit and is growing in size. Just this past fall, the organization participated in Take Back the Night, These Hands Don’t Hurt, The Clothesline Project and Mentors in Violence Prevention training, among other projects.

However, none of those efforts may be as influential as the one that will take place at 8 p.m. on March 31 when the group will perform the reading of “Body & Sold” in front of all of Vanderbilt’s student-athletes at Sarratt Cinema.

Body & Sold is a documentary-style play that aims to raise awareness of the issues of child abuse, runaways and child prostitution.

Through that performance and other initiatives, Athletes Against Assault hopes to spread the word across campus that others should join them in opposing violence against women.

Vanderbilt CHAMPS/Life Skills Coordinator Alison Bush believes that message from student-athletes will resonate throughout the campus.

“Athletes are viewed as leaders on campus, so if they are setting good examples, then maybe that can help influence others,” she said.

Despite the organization still being fairly new, Silverstein has been pleased with the success the group has experienced.

“It has been successful because of the students who are on the task force,” she said. “They are interested and passionate about this issue and they have really grown as a group in terms of feeling a responsibility for their community.”

Although they were unsure what they were getting into at first, the student-athletes in the organization have come to embrace the effort as well.

“It’s been a wonderful experience getting to talk with fellow athletes and getting to hear their opinions, share my opinions and become more aware of what’s going on not only on our campus, but around the country,” senior golfer Liebelei Lawrence said.

Senior tennis player Evan Dufaux added: “It is an area that I knew nothing about coming in, so it is good to get the education and pass it along to my teammates.”

While there are similar organizations throughout the country, Athletes Against Assault is unique because it is it is the only known organization made up of both male and female student-athletes.

 “Depending on how successful this is (at Vanderbilt), we’d like to branch out to other campuses,” Bush said. “That is something we are looking at for possibly next year and beyond.”

Lawrence hopes the group is at the forefront of a trend.

“We are the first committee in the Southeastern Conference, so we hope it will spread to other schools in the SEC beyond just Vanderbilt,” she said.