- HANDS OFF! LET'S TALK!
- Bob Hall
It's about sex!
It's about conflict!
It'll be fun!
We're talkin' life stuff here!
Note: Rescheduled for Thursday, March 18,
1999
8:00 p.m, Bede Ballroom, UMC
Press Release | About Bob Hall
Did you Know: That sex is one of the most common sources of conflict among men and women on college campuses today.
Did you Know: That sex is one of the least talked about sources of conflict among men and women on college campuses today.
Did you Know: That it doesn't have to be that way.
Hands Off! Let's Talk is an entertaining, interactive and throught-provoking, program about sex, conflict, and intimacy in relationships. Just over one hour long, the program is designed to address the underlying causes of date/acquaintance rape, unplanned pregnancy, and the spread of sexually transmitted disease.
The program was created in 1987 by Bob Hall, the founder and president of Learning To Live With Conflict, Inc., a conflict management firm based in Geneseo, New York, and has been presented at over 500 colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada.
What is unique about Hands Off! Let's Talk is an approach to the topic which treats conflict as an opportunity for learning and growth, through direct dialogue and better understanding, rather than a fight to be won or lost through blaming and finger-pointing. It is this non-adversarial/resolution-oriented approach which has won the approval of both men and women on college campuses nationwide.
Bob's ability to establish an almost immediate rapport with any size audience, together with a combination of role playing, a touch of humor, and a continuous dialogue with his audience, creates a relaxed and interactive atmosphere which serves to lighten the mood and lower defenses toward an area of conflict which most of us generally feel comfortable discussing.
Learning To Live With Conflict, Inc.
P.O. Box 100
Geneseo, New York 14454-0100
(716) 243-1009 or Fax (716) 243-4219
Bob Hall is the founder of Learning To Live With Conflict, Inc. established in 1987 to provide education and training in the analysis and resolution of conflict. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York he holds a black belt in the Japanese martial art of judo and was chief instructor of sport judo classes at the Rochester Institute of Technology from 1981 to 1984, while completing his bachelors degree in business administration.
His involvement with judo led him into work with self-defense education in 1981. Aware of the risks and limitations of traditional fighting approaches to self-defense, he co-authored and team-taught a 20-hour classroom course in self-defense education through the physical education department at the Rochester Institute of Technology from 1984-1988. The course was designed to enable students to prevent, recognize, and defuse potentially violent conflicts before they had escalated to violence, as well as to enable students to use violence effectively as a last resort. Course material was based on an informal study of current self-defense literature, victimology research, and the writings of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., on nonviolence
His work on self-defense education evolved into work with rape and sexual assault prevention and the broad spectrum of issues surrounding the problem of sexual violence. In order to humanize his research he conducted interviews with survivors of rape and sexual assault and met with rape crisis counselors to gain a better understanding of the victim/survivor experience and the advocacy services provided by rape crisis centers. At the same time he reviewed current literature and educational materials on rape and sexual assault and attended academic conferences on the subject as well.
Over time his focus shifted toward a study of date/acquaintance rape, considered to be one of the most common forms of sexual violence. His efforts to gain a deeper understanding of factors contributing to the occurrence of acquaintance rape led to an investigation of human sexuality and conflict. Again, a review of current literature and attendance at academic conferences held by The Society for the Scientific Study of Sex and The North American Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution provided new insight into some of the underlying causes of sexual violence, as well as concern with the adversarial nature of much of the rape and sexual assault education being conducted in the early 1980's
By 1986 conflict had emerged as the common thread in his work with self-defense education and sexual violence, and led to the formation of Learning To Live With Conflict, Inc. in the spring of 1987. Since 1984 Bob Hall has conducted lectures and seminars on self-defense education, sexual violence issues, and conflict resolution, for high schools, colleges, community groups and professional organizations throughout the United States and Canada. He earned a Bachelor of Sciences degree in business administration from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1983 and a Master of Arts Degree in conflict resolution from Antioch University in 1996, and has volunteered as a Community Dispute Mediator through the New York State Unified Court System since 1988.
- Posted 03/15/99 by Andrew Svec
Contact: Barbara Weiler, 218-281-8435