A range of UW-Madison student organizations—from the Campus Women’s Center and Women’s Studies Club to Black Woman Heal and Muslim Student Association—exchanged ideas Thursday for Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April, in the spirit of the month's theme: "Engaging New Voices."
University Health Services and End Violence on Campus hosted the meeting. Members of UW-Madison organizations collaborated on event ideas and gave advice to newcomers about ideas for educational programs during the month.
“One of the big functions of our office is to empower other people to kind of do their own version of prevention work and part of that is the collaboration and creating Sexual Assault Awareness Month events or sharing the events,” UHS Violence Prevention Specialist Alex Nelson said. “Really, we want to lead by example in normalizing and teaching folks how to create these kinds of meetings.”
The group, We’re Better Than That-Men Against Sexual Assault will host an event at Chaser’s Bar & Grille March 16 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. An art display called “Common.Diverse” will be featured in the Red Gym in April displaying artwork from sexual assault survivors.
A representative from the Rape Crisis Center offered assistance to organizations who may need help if survivors become triggered during events.
“The goal of tonight was to get different student [organizations] on campus together as well as representatives from the Rape Crisis Center and from UHS services, just get everyone to kind of create a space to share what people have been thinking about in terms of sexual assault awareness month events,” Nelson said.
Many of the organizations will be hosting several sexual assault events in March and April following this collaborative meeting.
“We can’t end sexual assault unless we all work together and share other experiences and ideas, and really work together on initiatives,” Nelson said.
