Security On Campus and Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment Launch Unprecedented Approach to Shattering the Silence of College Sexual Violence
WASHINGTON, May 26, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Soon-to-be high school graduates entering college this fall may not realize there's more to worry about than getting good grades. Many should be worrying about sexual violence.
PAVE and SOC announce the launch of the "Safe Campus, Strong Voices" Campaign (http://www.StrongVoicesCampaign.org/) to follow today's introduction of the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act – national legislation designed to help campuses better respond to and prevent sexual violence. "Safe Campus, Strong Voices" is a nationwide campaign to raise awareness and shatter the silence of college sexual violence. To end the epidemic of campus sexual violence, students and faculty, men and women, will to work together to create safer and more supportive campuses.
According to the US Department of Justice, 1 in 4 college women will be sexually assaulted, and the majority of those sexual assaults happen fall semester to freshmen and sophomore women. An astounding 95.2% of these will never be reported. Addressing this issue is critical when thinking about the safety of everyone in that environment.
PAVE: Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment and SOC: Security On Campus, Inc. are joining together with other leading sexual assault groups for this campaign during September for National Campus Safety Awareness Month.
"Safe Campus, Strong Voices" focuses on prevention of sexual assault and raising awareness of the high level of underreporting by victims of these crimes. NPR's recent series "Seeking Justice for Campus Rapes" reveals how most colleges are not successfully dealing with this issue. The campaign will empower students as bystanders to make changes in their campus environment, and encourage victims to seek justice.
PAVE Founder Angela Rose said, "Every time I speak on a college campus, there's a line of students who want to disclose that they have been affected by sexual assault and most have never reported. This unprecedented campaign will help build the national movement to shatter the silence of sexual violence on college campuses."
SOC and PAVE have put together toolkits to create effective, simple-to-run campaigns in an ever-busy campus environment. The campaign provides materials, training, and ideas to bring prevention education programs to campus, to hold tabling events, and to collaborate with other groups and offices on campus throughout the month of September and beyond. On September 30, all participating groups across the country will stand in solidarity by holding simultaneous rallies. They will encourage reporting of sexual assault and a culture shift to create the safest most supportive campus community for survivors of sexual violence.
"This campaign seeks to shed light on crimes that so greatly impact the lives of far too many college students every year," said Melissa Lucchesi, SOC's Outreach Education Coordinator. "By speaking out and encouraging a supportive response to sexual assault survivors, students across the country will be a part of a movement that creates ripples of change in their campus community."
SOURCE Security On Campus, Inc.
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