Center for Women and Gender Equity Hosts Sexual Assault Awareness Month Events
The University’s Center for Women and Gender Equity (CWGE) is hosting multiple events throughout April in to raise awareness during Sexual Assault
Awareness Month. Events include the Clothesline Project, Take Back the Night, and
more.
“April and Sexual Assault Awareness Month offer an opportunity to our campus to engage in raising awareness and building communities of care and safety,” notes Dr. Lindsey Mosvick, director of WCU’s Center for Women and Gender Equity. “The events our office hosts with support from student organizations and campus and borough partners help uplift those who have experienced harm and gain momentum in the movement to end sexual harm.”
The United Nations reports that globally, nearly 1 in 3 women have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence (not including sexual harassment), or both at least once in their lives. That’s 30 percent of women aged 15 and older.
WCU’s most visual event in support of Sexual Assault Awareness Month is the annual Clothesline Project on Thursday, April 17. Under a tent in the Academic Quad, students and anyone who has experienced sexual violence are invited to create messages on colorful T-shirts that will hang around the Quad to bring awareness to the issue. Shirts with descriptions of experiences of harm will face inward and those with hopeful messages will face outward. Individuals from the Counseling Center and the Crime Victims Center of Chester County will be present at the event to support participants and therapy dogs will be present.
The Clothesline Project will be displayed between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on the Ruby Jones side of the Quad ellipse.
Take Back the Night takes place on Friday, April 25, from 5 to 8 p.m. Take Back the Night events offer the community a way to express support to and for those who have experienced sexual violence or harm; share information about campus and local resources; and support a safer campus community.
As part of Take Back the Night on April 25, the Center for Women and Gender Equity will mount its largest resource fair to date with nine partner organizations providing information under a tent on the Quad. For the first time, the center is hosting speakers from WOAR, the Philadelphia Center Against Sexual Violence, including one who will talk about their personal journey of healing after experiencing harm in college. The other, from WOAR’s education team, will discuss how to build supportive communities for survivors. The speakers will be held in Main Hall Auditorium (Room 168).
Members of WCU’s It’s On Us student organization will also appear at Take Back the Night to offer opportunities for student involvement in the movement to end sexual violence during April and beyond.
The sequence of events will close with Community Care Night, a space that offers support and activities without directly addressing sexual violence. For those needing a lower sensory event offering other forms of support and healing, Community Care Night will include games and support in the CWGE space in Lawrence Hall, Room 214.
The Clothesline Project was established in 1990 on Cape Cod, MA, to address the issue of violence against women. With survivors, victims, and their families and friends participating, the display of colorful T-shirts showing personal messages bears testimony to the problem of violence against women. It has grown to more than 500 events annually globally.
Take Back The Night is the oldest worldwide movement to stand against sexual violence. From its beginnings in 1970, it has evolved into a charitable organization with a global mission to end sexual violence in all forms and to support survivors in their healing journeys. The organization fosters safe communities through events and initiatives that unite people from every background, belief, and culture around the world to take a visible and vocal stand.
It’s On Us was founded in 2014 to increase public awareness around sexual assault prevention on campus. The non-profit’s mission is to give students of all identities the tools to address the cultural norms at the root of sexual harm through prevention education.
For more information, visit the Center for Women and Gender Equity or contact them at cwge@wcupa.edu.
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