The University launches the Red Flags campaign to prevent sexual violence among students

The Universitat de València is launching the Red Flags: Sexual Violence Prevention campaign. It’s an initiative of awareness and prevention from sexual violence particularly focused on students. It will take place from September to November 2026.

The campaign aims to identify, give visibility and reflect upon warning signs that may arise in affective and sexual relationships, as well as to provide tools for preventing, detecting and taking action under possible situations of sexual violence. The proposal combines participatory actions, workshops, awareness-raising materials and activities at the different campuses of the Universitat de València.

Red Flags is an initiative that the Universitat de València adapted to its own context based on the experience developed over the past year at the University of Agder (UiA), one of the universities in the European FORTHEM partnership. The idea emerged after the visit of Lee Michael Shults and Rasha Abdallah, members of the Centre for Gender and Equality at the University of Agder, who visited the university last March to learn first-hand about the work carried out by the Equality and Diversity Unit. For the visit, an international workshop about equality public policies was organised, facilitating the exchange of experiences and the analysis of current challenges. The campaign is part of the partner universities’ commitment to sharing experiences, methodologies, and good practices in terms of equality and sexual violence prevention.

Six FORTHEM students as main characters on the first week

As a starting point of the campaign, the Universitat de València will welcome six students from different universities, members of the FORTHEM programme, during the week from 14 to 18 September. Their visit forms part of one of the FORTHEM volunteering packages by the Equality and Diversity Unit.Their participation will enable the development of the intensive exchange programme of training and co-creation of awareness-raising activities.

Throughout the week, participants will discover different resources and experiences at the University and, at the same time, they will participate directly in the activities of the campaign on the campuses, with the aim of bringing prevention messages closer to the students’ community.

The initiative is coordinated by the Vice-rector for Equality, Diversity and Well-being, through the Equality and Diversity Unit, with the collaboration of FORTHEM.

A week of prevention across the campuses

The first activity will take place on Tuesday, 15 September at the Burjassot campus, with a workshop about chemical submission. It will be led by Jose Antonio Saez, professor of Organic Chemistry, and by Ana Serra, project technician and researcher in the SCIENCEFLOWS Scientific Culture research group. The session will address what chemical submission is and its social impact. The VSAFE project will also be presented, giving the opportunity to discover and test the kit developed as part of this project. The workshop will take place in the assembly hall of the Faculty of Pharmacy, from 9:30 to 11:00am. Prior registration is required:https://encuestas.uv.es/index.php/728726?lang=es

That same morning, the campaign team will put the Red Flags posters in the bathrooms of different faculties, while participatory dynamics with discussions will be held, and audiovisual content will be generated to promote the campaign on social media.

On Wednesday, 16 September, the programme will arrive to the Tarongers campus, with a workshop about intra-gender violence in the university field, carried out by Karla Zambrano, assistant professor of Private International Law in the Department of International Law “Adolfo Miaja de la Muela” with the researcher Silvia Visentin, an expert in intra-gender violence, and Salomé Carvajal-Ruiz, a professor at the UV University Institute of Women Studies. At this workshop, which will take place from 9:30 to 11:00am in classroom EP.01 at the Faculty of Teacher Training, the preliminary results of the AFECTIVASproject, will be presented. Funded through the call for grants from the Vice-rector’s Office, it aims to explore the experiences of university students facing situations of intra-gender violence, as well as the university’s mechanisms and protocols of action.

The session will also include participatory activities focusing on red flags, the installation of posters in the bathrooms of the Faculty of Teacher Training and in the Faculty of Social Sciences, and the creation of audiovisual materials for social media.

On Friday, 18 September, at the Blasco Ibáñez campus, a workshop about creating safe and brave spaces will take place. It will be led by Sergio Maruenda, tenured professor of English Language and Linguistics, at the Institute of Applied Modern Languages (IULMA) and the Department of English and German Philology of the University. The workshop will take place from 9:30 to 11:00am in classroom OB03 at the Espai Vives.

The entrance is free, subject to capacity.

A committed university

With Red Flags, the Universitat de València reinforces its commitment to buildinga safer university community free from sexual violence, placing prevention and awareness-raising as essential tools.

The campaign particularly encourages the participation of students and the creation of reflection and dialogue spaces that facilitate the identification of behaviours, attitudes, and situations that may constitute warning signs in relationships. In this regard, the international dimension of the initiative makes it possible to incorporate different perspectives and experiences, and promotes the exchange of knowledge among the universities that collaborate with FORTHEM.

The campaign will continue to be developed at the university from September to November, with new activities and awareness-raising materials aimed at the university community.