April 20th is Sexual Assault Awareness Month’s Day of Action. This year’s theme is preventing sexual violence on our campuses. Hopefully you have thought about how you would like to commemorate this day, but if you haven’t, NSVRC has some fantastic suggestions for you. Although it’s just under a month away, there’s still time to make this day impactful. I would really love to see clinicians participating in some way, because prevention is a critical part of our role.
Whatever you choose to do, I hope you’ll come back here and let us know all about it. As added incentive, I have a lovely giveaway for one random reader who leaves a comment. I’m not quite ready to reveal the specifics of the giveaway yet, but I promise to soon (and it’s something we’ve never given away on the site, so I’m pretty excited). Just let me know 2 things: 1.) How you commemorated the day (or any day during SAAM); and 2.) One inspiring aspect of the day or of the event you attended. I will provide weekly reminders leading up to the giveaway, which will be chosen on May 4th. I can’t wait to hear what people have done. Canadian and non-North American readers, and of course, all of our non-clinician readers, please consider participating, as well.
Stay tuned!
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We are having a concert called Concert for Courage: Tune Out Violence. Local musicians are donating their time on a Friday night at a local restaurant. In between musicians we will speak about sexual assault, with poems, stories, quotes. We are trying to make it uplifting while raising awareness.
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We are doing a clothesline project in our lobby and also sponsoring our local advocacy agency with “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes”.
I was honored by being selected to accept the Fairfax County Sexual Assault Awareness Month Proclamation from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
Yesterday I met with the Director of the Student Advocacy Centre at my work place( British Columbia Institute of Technology) Burnaby BC. We are going to work towards accomplishing three projects in relation to sexual assault prevention/education on campus: 1. doing a walk around campus with security, reps from the Centre and myself as well as physically challenged students to review the whole issue of safety and accessibility on campus for students,faculty and visitors. 2. Including the numbers for the two local Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner programs and a sexual assault service included in the student handbook which every student receives and 3.beginning conversations re Green Dot violence intervention program as developed by Dr. Dorothy Edwards at University of Kentucky. All this from one meeting!
A collaboration of agencies in Flagstaff, AZ who respond to sexual violence held its annual “Take Back the Night” rally on April 7 to celebrate Sexual Assault Awareness Month. We had two groups that marched to a central point – one group started on the campus of Northern Arizona University, and the other started at Flagstaff Medical Center. We had beautiful and thoughtful signs, banners and chants, as well as a local percussion band who played music as we marched from both places. We met in Heritage Square, where a proclamation was read by the mayor, awards were given out to dedicated members in the SA community (presented by the County Attorney), and three poems were read by the winners of a poetry slam held before the event. We served coffee and hot beverages to the attendees, and had the best turnout ever! After the rally, we hosted an after party at a downtown venue, where two more local bands played for the crowd to benefit the cause. It was a very successful and meaningful gathering. 🙂
During the entire month of April our program endorsed an anti-violence public service announcement dispayed at Regal Cinemas before each movie viewing in a 2 county region. Yesterday, 04-19, I did 2 radio interviews focused on the issue of sexual assault. I also compiled verbal feedback from our sexual assault patients into a letter format. I sang the accolades of our team to hospital administration and sent the letters to each nurse. If anyone from my team (Jen) reads this entry….. the letter’s in the mail. 🙂
I went to the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault AWARE event. It was a silent auction to raise money for MNCASA. Al Franken was one of the speakers, that was exciting to hear all that he is doing in Washington.
Just one voice not loud enough unfortunately to make a difference. Lots of those with good intentions in this neck of the woods, but noone ready to step up to the plate towards prevention, eliminating sexual assault/domestic violence. Hopefully next year I will have found others willing to collaborate in starting a grass roots womens rights group. I live in Port Hardy British Columbia. Women dominate the health care field yet, this is where the biggest stumbling blocks in making any progressive changes.
It has been a highly productive month promoting SAAM in Seattle and the Eastside. Harborview’s Center for Sexual Assault had their CORE SANE training in April. I participated at two Health and Safety Fairs engaging students at school and families at the Boys and Girls Club to consider who their safe person would be and how would they respond to someone who disclosed an assault to them. Our King County Sexual Assault Resource Center had a theme “Stick It To Silence” and I managed to get LE, Schools, Businesses, UCC and Emergency rooms to place a Resource Hotline in a visible place. It has been a great month to network, offer cross training and I see no reason to stop ‘talking the talk’ just because April is over!