Awareness Breaks The Silence

If you're having lunch with your college-age daughter and three of her closest friends, you can almost be sure one of them had suffered a sexual assault by the time she was 18.

And if you're with your son and five of his friends, the same statistic holds true.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and staff members of Help-In-Crisis are working diligently to get the word out that sexual violence is not acceptable at any age.

Staff at Help-In-Crisis believe a multi-pronged, communitywide effort is the only way to change how people view domestic abuse and sexual violence. HIC has a multitude of programs to achieve that end.

Wednesday, a group gathered at the HIC office to judge sexual assault awareness posters made by a group of freshmen at Sequoyah High School. According to Prevention Coordinator Jyme Lowe, the students had only two hours to research, plan and make their movie posters.

"Both girls and boys participated," said Lowe. "All of the posters will be hung in the hallways at the school, as the administration has approved them. When we got started, some of the students had some pretty racy ideas, but were able to change up their ideas to be effective."

A glance around the room decked out with 13 posters showed the students had learned quite a bit. Many quoted statistics and used magazine clip art to illustrate their points.

NSU Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Preventionist Heather Adney dropped by to judge the contest, and to share events planned for the campus throughout the month.

"We have a jam-packed April, and I'm very excited," said Adney.

"We're conducting a poster campaign using visuals from the mystrength website. The posters target men to let them know what kind of impact they can have in the fight against sexual assault."

Adney has used poster campaigns in the past, and she believes they're effective in getting people to talk about what behaviors are acceptable.

"NSU is in the beginning stages of becoming more aware of all the different kinds of violence," said Adney. "I am fortunate enough to have an intern this semester, and he's done some extensive research on bystander input."

According to Adney, "bystander input" is the act of friends intervening in potentially dangerous situations during social events, such as a friend jumping in to help when another friend is in trouble.

"And we stress talking about the situation from a friendship standpoint, not a victim or criminal view," said Adney.

Adney has planned an interactive group discussion for April 30, a candlelight vigil in conjunction with the Residence Hall Association on April 29, and a staff/faculty "Denim Day" for April 22.

April 04, 2009