April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, or SAAM, and Auburn University students are doing their part by informing the public.
The SAAM Task Force at Auburn University has already organized many things for this month to get the community involved.
The SAAM Task Force is made up of 12 girls, said Gabrielle Brundidge, senior in interdisciplinary studies.
The group has organized the These Hands Don't Hurt campaign, the Clothesline Project, and a program of speakers who will talk about sexual assault prevention as well as recovery and how to support a friend or loved one who has been assaulted.
On Thursday, April 25, they will have the Take Back The Night program.
For These Hands Don't Hurt, all that the group needed was a canvas and some paint.
"People can put their hands in the paint and put it on a canvas that we have and pledge to not use their hands for violence of any kind," said Kathleen Brown, freshman in chemical engineering and member of the SAAM task force.
The Clothesline project was an opportunity for people to paint t-shirts in memory or in honor of those who have survived Sexual Assault or sometimes for themselves if they have been a victim of sexual assault.
The t-shirts were then hung on a clothesline on the green space.
Take Back The Night is an event for sexual assault survivors to tell their stories and speakers will come to educate the audience on sexual assault.
"Our overarching goal of course it to promote awareness," said Kristy Malone, diversity initiatives coordinator. "One in four college aged women can expect to be victims of sexual assault at some point in their lives, we've all heard that statistic, but still awareness is not where it should be." Malone is also a Safe Harbor advocate on campus and said that most victims of sexual assault say they can't believe it happened to them and that they didn't know this could happen at Auburn.
"We definitely want people to not be afraid, Auburn is no more dangerous than any other college campus," Malone said. "Women who are college aged are most likely to be victims of sexual assault so we really need people to be aware so they can take appropriate precautions."
Student participation was high for the These Hands Don't Hurt project, but not as high for the Clothesline Project because it was more time consuming, Brown said.
They have been planning these activities since January.
The group gets their funding from Verizon and the Health and Wellness Promotion Services along with other groups.
"We also really try to promote drink safety, the date rape drug is frequently used," Malone said. "There are certain bars downtown that people are starting to recognize as you're more likely to get date rape drugged there."
Not every victim of the date rape drug decides to go to the hospital for testing, Malone said.
For these sitiations, she recommends that the person be taken home by a trusted companion who can make sure they are ok.
"Even though we are in the Bible Belt, it's still a touchy subject to talk about sex in general so it has been a little bit difficult getting the word out," Brundidge said. "(We are) keeping students aware of what happens when the lights go out and (making sure) that everyone has the correct consent for any activity that is done."
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