Women’s Advocacy Group and STARS, Standing Together Against Rape and Sexual Assault, partnered together to host an event to kickoff sexual assault awareness month. The event was held Thursday, March 29 in the Student Center.
Women’s Advocacy Group, sharing many of the same motives as STARS, is a newly formed group that developed in January, with Thursday's event being its second ever.
The event began with the president of Women’s Advocacy Group, Lydia Homandberg, discussing the reasons for this event and what Women’s Advocacy Group and STARS do in relation to sexual assault.
Homandberg introduced guest speaker Bri Thomas, junior in political science, who shared her story on how she became a strong advocate for sexual assault awareness.
Thomas said she first encountered the toll of sexual assault when her friend was sexually assaulted and failed to get the support and belief from other individuals. This event led Thomas to become a speaker for sexual assault awareness.
“Sexual assault is the most underreported crime on college campuses, and I think that’s crazy,” Thomas said.
This led Thomas to feel that she had to do something.
“Since it is the most underreported crime, somebody has to do the standing up, somebody has to do the talking about it,” Thomas said.
Thomas views herself as the “concerned friend.” She said speaking about sexual assault is hard for those who have been affected by it, so she uses her role to advocate for these people and show her belief in them.
After Thomas finished her speech, Homandberg took the floor again to introduce the other guest speaker of the night, Vickie Dearing.
Dearing began her speech by discussing her life story and how she became the director of Rape Counselors of East Alabama.
Dearing shared that when she was younger she was sexually assaulted by a family friend. After the assault occurred, Dearing chose to speak about the incident, but due to the relation to the assailant, Dearing was shown disbelief by others and was even told not to speak about it to prevent the assailant from getting into trouble.
Dearing said this reaction was mindboggling.
“I didn’t do anything wrong; he did this to me," Dearing said.
Dearing discussed her involvement in Rape Counselors for East Alabama, where she began as a volunteer and eventually became the director for the past 18 years.
During her speech, Dearing explained what Rape Counselors of East Alabama does and how it tries to help victims of assault.
Two points Dearing said during her talk — belief is important and there is not a right or wrong way for how a victim deals with their assault.
“Everybody has a different way of handling their situation,” Dearing said. “It doesn’t mean you did it the right way or the wrong way. It’s just the best way for you.”
The event concluded with Homandberg giving thanks to the speakers and thanking all of the people that attended.
On the way out, guests were allowed to take a card provided by Rape Counselors of East Alabama, which included numerous contact numbers in Lee County that help aid in assault situations.
Along with the cards, guests were encouraged to take a flyer about Women’s Advocacy Group as well as a pamphlet with helpful information concerning sexual assault.
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