Fulfilling, comforting solace after a rough day and sometimes even rich.

Chocolate is the confectionery love of many people, and one University office is using its legacy of enjoyment to demonstrate what a healthy relationship is and chocolate’s comforting power to help mend survivors of sexual abuse.

“For the most part, the Chocolate Festival is a fundraiser to raise awareness about the issues that my office focuses on, like relationship violence, stalking, sexual assault and drug use to facilitate sexual violence,” said Larry Gourdine, head of the Office for Violence Prevention.

“Chocolate is a fun and unique way to bring attention to these issues, so there will be lots of chocolate there, but more importantly, there will be resources for students who may need help.”

Gourdine feels that many students don’t even know that his office, a small room in Memorial Hall in which he is the only worker, exists.

He hopes the Chocolate Festival will let students know that support, counseling or even just a shoulder to cry on is available.

“I want people to know that there is a safe place where they can talk about what happened and there won’t be any victim blaming or judgement where they can be supported and helped along the way to recovery,” he said.

However, according to Gourdine, today’s festival is also important for people who have never been abused or assaulted because it will help them understand how victims of these types of crimes feel.

It also will allow them to become more understanding and able to help their friends or family find help.

He plans to facilitate this understanding through a character card game in which participants are “put in survivors’ shoes” and are expected to make decisions based on different situations, such as molestation or assault.

They then can see some common responses from family, friends, even police that survivors who made that decision would be presented with.

By seeing such responses, Gourdine hopes participants will gain more insight into the situation.

“The game really gives people a good perspective and understanding that sexual violence is more than just dehumanizing a person, and then the survivor is able to just pick up their lives where they left off and get over it,” he said.

“It just doesn’t work like that because that experience will always be with you for the rest of your life. But, it doesn’t have to be in control of your life.”

There also will be a film screening of “Welcome to the Party,” a film created by students at the University of West Virginia. The movie will show viewers a common college party and how that situation can lead to different types of sexual violence.

“Most importantly, the film is up-to-date, so there will be no big teased hair or horn-rimmed glasses that automatically show that it was made in the ’80s,” he said.

“It is made by modern students, for modern students, and it shows how these types of crimes can happen in everyday life and how people are left to pick up the pieces and try to put back together their lives and themselves.”