At the annual meeting of the MASCAC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee on December 8, the group took part in the One Love Foundation training.

According to the One Love website, the organization was created to "educate young people about healthy and unhealthy relationships, empowering them to identify and avoid abuse and learn how to love better." One Love was founded by the family of Yeardley Love, a student-athlete at the University of Virginia who lost her life in a tragic domestic violence incident. 

The student-athletes were led by Erin Lepper the Equal Opportunity & Compliance Prog. Investigator from Westfield State University. The group was shown a video depicting a relationship that turned violent. After the video, the student-athletes split into groups to discuss attributes of unhealthy and healthy relationships. 

"The One Love video that we watched was very powerful but also very important for us to watch and understand that things like this could happen to any of us," MASCAC SAAC President Nik Beshere said. "We need to be more aware of things like that."

Following the training, each school shared a community service project proposal with ideas ranging from Habitat for Humanity, Special Olympics, One Love and "Dress to Impress" assisting high schools students to dress for prom. The project that was selected will be completed in March/April of 2020. 

The meeting concluded with discussion of the legislation that will be voted on at the NCAA Convention in January and D3 Week. Each SAAC shared their vote with National Representative Emily Goodwin of Massachusetts Maritime who presented them to National SAAC at their meeting. For D3 Week this year, each institution will be holding their own "Yards for Yeardley" event which coincides with the One Love Foundation. D3 Week runs from April 6-12, 2020.

For more information on One Love and Yards for Yeardley, click here.