Florence Zhu, a sophomore student at UC Berkeley, has spent her college years hearing disturbing stories from her friends—stories of abuse, sexual violence and intimate partner violence. Last year, the Fremont native decided to do something about it.
“I realized that…[these] encounters I had weren’t isolated instances,” Zhu said.
In June 2024, she founded Secure Steps, a nonprofit based out of Berkeley, now operating in colleges around the nation, bringing educational resources and support to young people facing violence.
“The mission of Secure Steps is, broadly, to support survivors and also broaden the knowledge of what intimate partner violence is in college campuses,” Zhu said.
According to the Journal of Urban Health, 42 percent of female-identifying and 28 percent of male-identifying college students have reported experiences of physical and sexual abuse, in addition to other forms of IPV, such as controlling behavior or verbal abuse from a partner.
Zhu found two major problems in her conversations with friends: that many young people were victims of IPV without recognizing what it was, and for those who were aware and searching for justice and healing, not many resources were available.
Zhu told me education is the way to begin to solve both problems. “If people don’t know about how they can help assist with an issue or even the existence of the issue at all, there isn’t really a basis for any form of solvency or any capacity to achieve change,” Zhu said. “I’m of the belief that if we’re able to better inform people about the signs of IPV, they can both recognize it within their own relationships and also the relationships of their friends or their peers, and then help intervene in these situations.”
Secure Steps has several initiatives implemented at the national, collegiate level, aimed to educate the broader public and bridge the gap in legal resources for survivors.
In partnership with the National District’s Attorney Association, the group is currently working on “EmpowerU,” a campaign set to bring speakers to colleges nationwide, to provide resources on IPV.
As Secure Steps is based out of Berkeley, most events will be held on UC Berkeley’s campus, but the group is expanding to schools nationwide like as University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Loyola Marymount University.
As of now, programs will be based strictly on college campuses throughout the next semester, but Zhu said that she is “looking to hopefully expand in the future, whether it be to youth organizations in certain counties or other organizations that are community-based.”
Working to get these educational resources to survivors and community members, Secure Steps launched a podcast last week, “Secure Steps: Steps Towards Safety,” interviewing professors, sociologists and experts on IPV.
Claire M. Renzetti, an expert on gender-based violence and a professor of sociology at the University of Kentucky, was a guest on the podcast, with her episode about nature as a healing mechanism for women who have experienced abuse, premiering this week.
“I had never heard of Secure Steps before, but when I learned more about it, I was very impressed,” Renzetti said. “It was a pleasure to speak with Florence. We quickly developed a rapport, and I enjoyed responding to her insightful questions. I hope Secure Steps will inspire students on other campuses to undertake this important work.”
In this first year of the organization, Zhu has found a supportive response to the work. “It’s honestly been so amazing,” she said. “I’ve spoken to so many of my friends and my peers about this, and whenever I bring it up, they always tell me that it’s such an important initiative…The support has been overwhelmingly positive in trying to find some sort of mechanism of change that can help many people around the nation.”
In addition to education, central to this “mechanism of change” is the legal aspect. With a digital map detailing inter-state IPV resources, Secure Steps’ works to help survivors navigate the legal system and connect them to support services.
With the imitative, Zhu is working to connect law firms that have extra capacity for pro-bono cases to survivors who need the legal aid and support. They are currently in contact with approximately 15 firms and shelters, to be able to bridge that connection between survivors and legal aid.
“Our mission is to identify the holes and then fill [them,]” Zhu said. “We’re still working on the beginning stages of that initiative, but that’s something that I’m very excited to see unfold.”
Secure Steps is currently almost entirely run by Zhu, with help from around four other individuals. When thinking towards the future of the organization, she said she hopes to see both the work and the staff expand.
“So many people want to enact some form of change,” Zhu said. “I want [Secure Steps] to be an outlet where individuals are able to identify problems within IPV and create solutions to better bridge those problems. The initiatives I’m working on only touch upon a couple of problems that IPV poses, whether it’s a lack of legal support, a lack of knowledge or resources.
“There are many other problems within IPV that have yet to be addressed. And I’m hoping that Secure Steps can be an organization where individuals can connect with others and foster that sort of change on their own campus.”
The podcast, “Secure Steps: Steps Towards Safety,” can be streamed wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more about Secure Steps at their website.
