SUNY's Got Your Back
SUNY’s Got Your Back provides the opportunity for students, faculty, staff, and community members from across the state to create comfort kits for victims and survivors of violence, and to learn methods of better preventing and responding to violence, as together we work to build a New York where these bags are no longer needed.
On August 16, 2018, SUNY will again partner with the PGA TOUR Champions and PGA Tour Wives Association at the DICK's Sporting Goods Open tournament at En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott, NY.
Follow SUNY and the DICK’s Sporting Goods Open on social media to see us reach our 25,000th bag. #SUNYsGotYourBack
On April 4, 2016, the State University of New York launched SUNY’s Got Your Back to assemble comfort bags for victims and survivors of sexual and interpersonal violence who seek help from shelters, centers, and hospitals across the Empire State. Initially proposed as a year-long project with the goal of 2016 bags, the program has far surpassed this goal with more than 23,500 bags assembled at SUNY’s Got Your Back events held at each of SUNY’s 64 campuses, and several PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions events.
Our 2018 goal is to reach 25,000 bags
View the News Release from Launch
Every day in New York, adults and children seek assistance from hospitals, rape crisis, and domestic violence shelters. Often they come in with little more than the clothes they are wearing. Money that shelters and other response organizations spend on personal care items is money that they are not spending on other crucial costs.
Many SUNY colleges in the past ran programs to collect comfort bags – bags filled with personal care items one would need when they arrive at a shelter or hospital. Starting on April 4, 2016, SUNY’s Got Your Back has taken that work to scale. Teaming with the Office of Victim Services, The New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NYSCASA), the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NYSCADV), The New York City Alliance, State Police and others, the SUNY Title IX Coordinators Association (STIXCA) and many partners have assembled bags at every SUNY campus and at PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions events in New York State.
We are deeply grateful to the PGA TOUR for its partnership in providing comfort bags to victims of violence, and helping us to educate thousands of PGA TOUR attendees on the need to prevent violence.
More than 25,000 bags so far!
25,000 Comfort Bags Have Been Filled For Violence Shelters in New York
