Sexual Assault Awareness Month has come to a close, and during April, I always try to do a little something extra to work to prevent violence against women and children. At my center, the staff was thrilled to be out in the community to educate and advocate for our cause and our clients. We have a big presence all year round, however, during Sexual Assault Awareness Month, our presence is clearly enhanced all over the area. This April, we raised awareness and highlighted sexual assault not as a women’s rights matter, but as a social justice and human rights issue that is relevant to every gender, race, religion and sexual orientation. Advocates and educators presented trainings at a multitude of schools and social agencies. Press releases filled the local newspapers, demanding that we bring the issue of sexual abuse into the open in order to break the silence and shame surrounding it. Being able to bring our knowledge and our gifts to the community was a real privilege, and I know that as advocates, we are always working to reach out to positively impact the culture to create a society free from sexual violence.
I, too, took part in the Sexual Assault Awareness Month events. As I am currently pursuing a graduate degree in women’s studies, I was honored to be included on a panel of five non-profit professionals and master’s candidates. Entitled “If Not Now, When? Showing Up as Allies for Social Justice,” the panel featured the author and violence prevention activist Paul Kivel as the keynote speaker. The five panelists represented a diverse variety of social agencies (sexual assault treatment, domestic violence prevention, child and family services, and public housing) and discussed the role that non-profits must play in community struggles to end violence and promote equality. Inspired by Paul’s article, “Social Service or Social Change?” the panelists discussed the responsibility of non-profits in working directly with those who have been affected by social problems and working to empower the community to prevent those problems from happening. Representing my agency was a perfect choice, as we work individually with survivors of sexual assault and abuse to help them to heal from the effects of rape. However, we also promote community-wide change to prevent rape from ever happening, through our prevention education efforts and Up2Us program. I was so excited to bring our work and mission to a new audience of over 100 members of the Chicago community and to explore the ways that non-profits can become more effective in their efforts to advocate for and promote a more just and empowered community.
I was particularly struck by Paul’s message and work. Paul’s activism against violence is tied to dismantling all other forms of inequality in society, such as sexism , religious intolerance, and racism. When one group of people are deemed as less than another, he reasons, it become easier to excuse or condone violent and oppressing acts against them. It becomes harder to be the one to stand up and say that this is not right. Paul pointed out at the panel, “Violence happens when people are separated, excluded, ignored, or set apart. Making peace requires all hands.”
This then got me thinking back to our work during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. To be honest, I’ve always had a complicated feeling about “awareness months.” On the one hand, I am certainly in favor of any kind of awareness and activism; however, I can’t help but think that this increased awareness should be all year round. This increased awareness must lead to increased empathy and solidarity, with and on behalf of the clients and community we serve. Additionally, increasing our awareness must in turn create an environment where no one is separated, excluded, or ignored in their time of crisis. Can you imagine what a year of anti-rape activism would be like? What would it take? It would require us to realize that violence is not acceptable. It would require us to empathize with one another instead of tolerating any kind of abuse inflicted on someone. It would require all of us to stand up and demand an end to violence. It would require us to interrupt and stop any form of victim blaming. In short, it would be a broad, sweeping, community-wide change, and it would certainly “require all hands.”
Promoting activism against sexual abuse, every day, might just be the beginning for turning this advocate's vision of creating a culture free from sexual violence into a reality. It’s worth a shot. And I think I'm up for the challenge.
