April is filled with on-campus initiatives and activities to recognize National Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
“This and October are always our most active months,” said Semone Sevion, president of the Women’s Studies Student Association at Georgia Regents University. “We love to help raise awareness – and being that this is right up our alley, we really love to show our support during this month in particular.”
Sevion said a successful event this month was The Clothesline Project. She said that attendees were given T-shirts to decorate to show support for survivors of sexual violence. While decorating the shirts, attendees shared their stories with each other.
“I really want us to expand the knowledge and, most of all, I want us to grow in numbers,” Sevion said. “The more people, the more support and a supportive student body and faculty when it comes to something as important as sexual assault and the awareness of sexual assault is optimal. Especially on a college campus, this is a place where most sexual assaults happen. Having a whole month dedicated to this nationally is amazing, but on-campus events that are easily accessible to students is what really makes people comfortable coming forth when bad things do happen, because they know the campus cares.”
Sevion said that the work to spread awareness continues year-round. She said there is always something to do and voices to be heard. She said that she believes that the programming and steps being taken to raise awareness are great, but they have to continue for people to really start to take notice.
Allison Foley, associate professor at Georgia Regents, is a member of the Sexual Assault Awareness Month Committee.
“One of the major events that we having been doing for almost 19 years is the Take Back the Night Rally,” Foley said. “We have different speakers who are related to the criminal justice system in some kind of way. Judges, attorneys and law enforcement come and speak as well as survivors (that) come and give testimony. This way, people can actually hear from real life people what they went through and what it was like to recover from it.”
Foley said that in addition to the rally, several other events will take place as awareness month continues. Two films will be shown. One film will be shown at Paine College and the other at Health Sciences Campus.
“We are so busy, running around trying to get everything right and make sure things are perfect for this month,” said Charlotte Murton, crisis specialist for Rape Crisis and Sexual Assault Services in Augusta. “This is, literally, our busiest month – because this is what we are all about. We are here to listen, advocate and protect. We do this because we want to help. We want to help rebuild and we want to help heal.”
Murton said there is a lot of hard work and preparation that goes into this month. She said that, although it is time consuming, in the end it is worth it when a great event is produced, awareness is raised and people benefit.
tmitch22@gru.edu
