Students at Colorado State University can participate in events as a way to get involved with Sexual Assault Awareness month throughout April.
CSU’s Women and Gender Advocacy Center helps to promote awareness over the course of the month. The group hopes to raise public awareness about sexual violence and to educate the campus community as well as individuals about how to prevent sexual or interpersonal violence, according to their website.
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One of the biggest focuses of the month is the Consent Turns Me On Campaign. The campaign is used during the awareness month as a way to focus on healthy relationships and sex positivity and, more importantly, on mutual consent as the foremost way of preventing sexual assault.
There will be workshops and other events running each week for the month of April.
Highlights include Safer Sexy Sex, a workshop on using sex toys, held Thursday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the Summit Hall Conference Room.
The week of April 8 there will be a screening of the movie “The Invisible War,” which highlights the rape epidemic within the U.S. military. The screening will be in Clark A104 on Tuesday, April 9 at 7:00 p.m.
Also taking place that week is the annual Take Back the Night march on Thursday, April 11. The event will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the Lory Student Center Theatre before the march to Old Town takes place.
Take Back the Night marches are historically part of SAAM, beginning in the 1970s in England first and then in San Francisco.
April was designated Sexual Assault Awareness Month in the late 1990s, officially observed month-long in 2001. The month is sponsored currently by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
There will be a variety of workshops held in the LSC and elsewhere on campus the week of April 15.
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Keynote speaker Jessica Valenti will speak on why feminism matters and how activism can be used to battle rape culture on Monday, April 22 in the Lory Student Center Theatre at 6:30 p.m.
SAAM will conclude with the annual Consent Turns Me On Consent Carnival. The carnival will run from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30 in Corbett Hall.
The CTMO Carnival will feature snacks, carnival games, prizes and a photo booth.
Nationwide, the focus for SAAM in Engaging New Voices, according to the NSVRC. New voices includes engaging coaches, faith leaders, parents, Greek Life and bystanders with the hope of preventing sexual assault.
Collegian reporter Rachel Telljohn can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @racheltelljohn.
