You know who can be a hero? You. Seriously. We’ve got video evidence to prove it.

YLAV is proud to present our video debut. With some grant money through the State of Michigan, the Kent County Sexual Assault Prevention Action Team (aka SAPAT) joined up with us YLAVers to produce a series of videos called You Don’t Have to Be a Superhero to be a Real Hero. 

Look, we’re all bystanders. And there’s a responsibility that comes with that. A bystander is a person present at something but who’s not taking part. You’re at a friend’s house with a big group of people, and you see two people talking across the room. You’re a bystander of their conversation in that situation. What’s your responsibility? To speak up when you see something you know is not right (and if you’re feeling unsure, trust your gut… if something’s making you uneasy, it’s usually for a reason). That’s called bystander intervention, and it’s incredibly powerful in stopping harmful things. In fact, it can make all the difference.

So we made these videos to empower bystanders to take action. The series deals specifically with stopping a potential sexual assault (after all, it is Sexual Assault Awareness Month right now), but it can also be used to start a conversation about bullying, harassment, and other damaging behaviors.

We developed these videos in collaboration with the Kent County Health Department, Kent County 17th District Family Court, Safe Haven Ministries, Family Futures, and YWCA West Central Michigan. We met as a work group and were joined by Todd Lewis of Ransom Note Entertainment, who helped take us from ideas all the way through plot development, costume design, script writing, casting, directing, producing, filming, and editing the videos. (Phew! Shout out to Todd.) Actors were recruited from several community theater groups.

We think they’re pretty great. But you can see for yourself with one of them below. And remember… you don’t have to be a superhero to be a real hero.