SAAM 2019: Continuing To Uplift Consent
As we pass the half-way point of Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2019, we are inspired by our community and the survivors who we have connected with over these past two weeks.
As we pass the half-way point of Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2019, we are inspired by our community and the survivors who we have connected with us over these past three weeks.
Our SAAM 2019 experience kicked off with the Utah Sexual Violence Conference. Many of our staff shared their knowledge, learned from experts in the field and were able to network with passionate people statewide. We officially kicked off the month with Virtual Day of Action, where we shared our support and created digital awareness by wearing the official SAAM color, teal. Then, we had a lot of fun with Quarters Arcade Bar, Alibi, and Tinwell for Let’s Get Consensual: A Bar Hop to benefit the RRC. The bars donated a portion of their sales to support our services bring awareness to their establishments. Last, we finished up with the Ask An Advocate Panel, where our team of community and system experts shared their expertise and reminded us how much more work is needed! If you missed it you can watch it in full here.
As the month comes to an end we are reminded that although SAAM is an amazing month, we must continue this work all year long! Here are some things everyone can do all year long:
Get Involved. All of us can make a difference. You can sign up for our next 40 Hour Training in English or Spanish, attend an Open House, apply to be on our board or give when you can.
Center and amplify the voices of those who are still not being centered in the movement to end sexual violence. You can support local organizations doing this work such as Restoring Ancestral Winds, Journey of Hope and Pacific Islander Action 2 Knowledge.
Uplift consent. Consent is about more than just asking — it is about listening to and accepting the answer without pressuring someone to change their mind. We can all explore how we respect others boundaries, practice healthier relationships, practice consent online and in all aspects of our lives.
Start by Believing. This may be simple, but what we know that the fear of not being believed is still a major deterrent for reporting and a survivor’s healing process. You can learn more about how to support a loved one in our Secondary Survivor Group every Monday.
Attend one of the many events still happening this month and throughout the year! You can join us next Saturday for Songs For Survivors a benefit concert for the Rape Recovery Center. You can also buy tickets to our 7th Annual Hope and Healing Gala on May 17, 2019.
If you have any suggestions for next years SAAM or would like to collaborate with us for future events contact us at (801) 467-7282!
Reconnect to YOU Through Relationships
Community and connection are critical components for healing. As humans, we need others as sources of support, companionship, and friendship. We also recognize that when someone has experienced trauma: relationships, intimacy, and sense of community are impacted. During the healing process, we are in the process of building a new life and re-educating on what feels comfortable, brave and empowering in relationships.
“Connection is the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”
Community and connection are critical components for healing. As humans, we need others as sources of support, companionship, and friendship. We also recognize that when someone has experienced trauma: relationships, intimacy, and sense of community are impacted. During the healing process, we are in the process of building a new life and re-educating on what feels comfortable, brave and empowering in relationships. As survivors are ready to engage more actively in the world, we get to establish new agendas, ambitions and deepen a sense of resiliency with who we are in the world.
Image source: https://campfire.org/blog/article/self-care-is-far-from-selfish/
Judith Herman, a renowned trauma specialist, shares that helplessness and re-connection can be at the core of trauma. Empowerment and re-connection are at the core of recovery and healing. Judith Herman identifies these areas to explore as part of the re-connection phase of recovery.
Stay with fear. Retaking our power back in real life situations involves a choice to face our fears. The goal is not to obliterate fear, but learn how to live with it and use it as a source of energy, empowerment, and resiliency.
Invitation: What is one thing you can do daily that is uncomfortable but feels manageable? How can you nurture yourself when fear arises? After you do something that creates fear, we invite you to acknowledge the effort and work you put into embracing your fears by celebrating your success!
Develop a sense of inner authority. At times we may feel possessed by our traumatic pasts. During healing a task is to become the person you want to be and to move out into the world for your life.
Invitation: Explore these questions. What inspires you? What are some of the parts of you that need more attention or have been lost due to trauma? What is one thing you can do each day to move towards your fullest self? It can be helpful to make this something that feels manageable.
Reconnect with your community. During healing, we may feel moments of independence while being connected with others. We may start exploring what it feels like to regain a sense of trust in people through participating in social interactions, supportive groups, or activities that bring joy and connection.
Invitation: Connect with support groups or activities that involve others. Assess the quality of your relationships. What are you needing now that may be different from earlier in your life? How can you support yourself when developing new relationships?
At the Rape Recovery Center, empowerment and re-connection are at the core of our mission and services we provide to the community. Please see these upcoming events here at the center and out in the community.
NEW Group: Secondary Survivors Support Group
Location: Rape Recovery Center 2035 S 1300 E, SLC, UT
Day/Time: Mondays 6 p.m. -7 p.m.
Starting: April 8th through June 24th
Cost: Free or donation as member chooses
*Interested clients will need to complete a group intake prior to the start of the group. This will be completed by Yvette Gonzalez Coronado, LCSW. If you are interested please contact: Yvettelcsw@gmail.com
To honor Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we created four different events in the community to celebrate collective healing. Please see our website for more details on these events.
Future events, new upcoming groups, and ways to stay connected are regularly updated on our social media and website. We look forward to connecting with you.
Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2019
Every April the Rape Recovery Center participates in Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), a nationwide effort to raise our collective consciousness around issues of sexual violence. This year, we are excited to offer a wide range of events to uplift consent and empower our communities. With offerings ranging from our Youth Art and Activism Contest, our Annual Let’s Get Consensual Bar Hop, and our Embodied through Movement workshop, we hope you will find something on our SAAM calendar that inspired you!
Original Art by Miriam Flores, Graphic Design by Jackie Goodman
Every April the Rape Recovery Center participates in Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), a nationwide effort to raise our collective consciousness around issues of sexual violence. This year, we are excited to offer a wide range of events to uplift consent and empower our communities. With offerings ranging from our Youth Art and Activism Contest, our Annual Let’s Get Consensual Bar Hop, and our Embodied through Movement workshop, we hope you will find something on our SAAM calendar that inspired you!
According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center this years theme, I Ask, “is the statement by which individuals will demonstrate that asking for consent is a healthy, normal, and necessary part of everyday interactions. I Ask is the statement by which we will uplift the importance of consent and transform it from being prescriptive to empowering. “
As our staff, volunteers and community partners reflected on what this years theme meant to us, we were overcome by the importance of the concept of uplifting consent as we continue to change the way our society views sexual violence and what it truly means to empower each other.
“I Ask encourages youth to consider what consent means to them, why it matters, and then express their voice and understanding through works of art, all while gaining skills and knowledge around the need to respect others and ask for consent. ”
“I Ask is about envisioning a world where every single individual is able to ask for what they need in their process. Whether that is healing from their own experience of sexual violence, learning about consent for the first time or working towards radical change for future generations. ”
“Asking someone before you do something that involves them is the ultimate preventative measure to assure safety; emotionally, intellectually, and physically. I take it upon myself to ask for consent for anything from, “can I hug you?” to “what are you seeking from this conversation (whether it is empathy, advice, my opinion, etc.)?”
You can see our full list of SAAM event here, and stay connected to us on social media for updates all month long.You will also find many exciting SAAM events from our partner agencies. The Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault is hosting their 6th annual Utah Sexual Violence Conference and PIK2R is hosting their 6th Annual National Pacific Islander Violence Prevention Conference. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center's website has excellent resources and information as part of their 2019 SAAM campaign, including guides on planning your own SAAM event!
However you decide to participate in SAAM, we hope you will find ways to uplift consent, and learn about how we can work together to end sexual violence in our communities.
Partner Spotlight: Coming Together to Uplift Consent
This SAAM we have 12 partner organizations; small and large, with diverse missions. Whether we are working with one of the three bars that are part of our Let’s Get Consensual Bar Hop or Full Circle Yoga who is hosting our Embodied Art and Movement Event. They all have one thing in common that they are standing with us to empower our communities. We are humbled to see that in a time where we are seeing an unprecedented increase in reporting and a 42% increase in our education requests, that survivors are not alone!
As we finish up our final preparations for this years Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) we reflect on how reaching the goals set forth by this year's theme I Ask, urges us all to uplift consent and empower our communities. This is why this month’s partner spotlight is not just one partner but all of the dedicated individuals and organizations who make SAAM the best it can be.
This SAAM we have 15 partner organizations; small and large, with diverse missions. Our partners range from three local bars who will be hosting our Let’s Get Consensual Bar Hop on April 6th, to Full Circle Yoga who is offering their beautiful space for our Embodied Art and Movement Event on April 13th. All of these incredible partners have one thing in common - they are standing with us to empower our communities and end sexual violence. In our current climate, where we are seeing an unprecedented increase in reporting and a 42% increase in our education requests, we are humbled to see that survivors are not alone!
We asked one of our partners to share what this years SAAM means to them and this is what they said:
“ We wanted to partner with the Rape Recovery Center on this years’ SAAM event because of the alignment of our goals and values. We also wanted to help spread awareness of the resources we have to offer with regards to prevention, resilience building, and trauma-informed care...”
“We believe effective prevention efforts must empower youth to believe in their role as leaders and change agents in the movement to reduce and eliminate sexual violence. ”
To learn more about our full list of our events go to our 2019 SAAM page here.
SAAM 2019: Meet Artist Miriam Flores
The Rape Recovery Center partnered with the Miriam Flores for our 2019 Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) campaign. This years national theme was “I ask” or “Yo Pregunto”. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center announced this theme stating,“ Sexual Assault Awareness Month is about more than awareness — the ultimate goal is prevention.
The Rape Recovery Center partnered with the Miriam Flores for our 2019 Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) campaign. This years national theme was “I ask” or “Yo Pregunto”. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center announced this theme stating,“ Sexual Assault Awareness Month is about more than awareness — the ultimate goal is prevention…The campaign will champion the power of asking — whether it be asking to hold someone’s hand, for permission to share personal information with others, or if a partner is interested in sex. I Ask is the statement by which individuals will demonstrate that asking for consent is a healthy, normal, and necessary part of everyday interactions. I Ask is the statement by which we will uplift the importance of consent and transform it from being prescriptive to empowering.” We are thrilled to feature Miriam’s interpretration of this theme with her original work this April!
Miriam is a first-generation Latina college student studying Fine Arts with an emphasis in Graphic Design at the University of Utah. She utilizes art as a way to document and display her experiences and the struggles that other students and families encounter. Her goal is to capture the beautiful moments of resistance and resilience in our communities.
When creating her piece she asked the Rape Recovery Center staff, community members and students what they envisioned when they thought of the theme of I ask/Yo Pregunto. With their feedback she created a design that embodied different identities and the voices of empowerment, respect and love.
To learn more about Miriam and her work, click here. To learn more about our SAAM 2019 events, visit our SAAM page here. Make sure to check back or sign up for our newsletter for SAAM 2019 updates!
Miriam’s - Yo Pregunto Design for the Rape Recovery Center
“Creating a design for this theme took a lot of thought and at times I found it difficult to express the theme through an image. After reading the responses of different community members I felt connected to the image and saw myself in each individual. It was an inspiring experience creating for this theme.
”
Voices of SAAM 2018
As we pass the half-way point of Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2018, we are inspired by our community and the survivors who we have connected with over these past two weeks.
Teresa Stafford, Senior Director of Victim Services and Outreach at Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, and Mara Haight, Executive Director of the Rape Recovery Center at the Utah Sexual Violence Conference.
As we pass the half-way point of Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2018, we are inspired by our community and the survivors who we have connected with over these past two weeks.
Our SAAM 2018 experience kicked off with a Facebook Live event, where we took our followers on a tour of the Rape Recovery Center. We took some stops along the way to talk about our exciting SAAM events. For those who missed it, check out the video here.
Phoebe Galvez, Rape Recovery Center staff therapist and organizer of "Speak, Swing, Sway: Zumba with inSpire Up" poses with all who attended for an evening of body love and movement.
Our next stop was the Utah Sexual Violence Conference April 4-6th. Several of our staff attended this annual conference, learning from many incredible speakers in the field of sexual violence treatment and prevention. When asked about her experience at the conference, Executive Director Mara Haight said "It was inspiring to hear from national leaders like Tony Porter who shared his perspective on the importance of men's engagement in this movement to end sexual violence. Connecting with advocates and service providers from across the United States helped me expand my understanding of what survivors need to feel supported in their recovery. I appreciated hearing from Teresa Stafford from the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center about the unique needs and barriers that survivors of color face. I also enjoyed learning from Mira Yusef and Valerie Davis about their work with the Resource Sharing Project, which is working to ensure survivors have meaningful access to services throughout our communities. Finally, it was an honor to share space with and learn from individuals who are making a change here locally, folks like Emily Bagley who presented a workshop on art-based healing initiatives."
We've celebrated the theme of SAAM 2018, "Embrace Your Voice" in many ways - marching in solidarity with other local activists and advocates at "Take Back the Night" on April 5th, bar hopping with our supporters at "Let's Get Consensual" on April 7th, shakin' it with our community at "Speak, Swing, and Sway: Zumba with inSpire Up" on April 11th, and getting creative with the Downtown Artists Collective at our "Coppice" art exhibition on April 13th and "Embrace Your Voice: Part 1" art workshop on April 14th.
Heather Olsen, 1st place winner of "Coppice: An Art Exhibition," is pictured with her winning painting titled "Looking Forward to the Future."
With 2 weeks left of SAAM 2018, don't miss the opportunity to connect with us. You can join us on April 28th for part 2 of our "Embrace Your Voice" community art workshop. We will be co-creating large art pieces that will be shared throughout the year on the walls of the Rape Recovery Center, and on display at our Hope and Healing Gala on June 8th. We hope to see you there!
2013 SAAM Art Project
Every April the Rape Recovery Center hosts a community art project during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Check out this video from our 2013 SAAM event!
Every April the Rape Recovery Center hosts a community art project during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Check out this video from our 2013 SAAM event!
SAAM 2018: Meet the Nopalera Artist Collective
The Rape Recovery Center partnered with the Nopalera Artist Collective for our 2018 Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) posters. This incredible group of artists are all about the intersections of art and activism, and we are thrilled to feature their original work this April as part of our SAAM campaign.
The Rape Recovery Center partnered with the Nopalera Artist Collective for our 2018 Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) campaign. This incredible group of artists are all about the intersections of art and activism, and we are thrilled to feature their original work this April.
The Nopalera Artist Collective/Colectiva La Nopalera formed in April of 2017, and identify as a group of migrant and indigenous artists. They chose the nopalera as their symbol because "They're thorny, tough enough to survive harsh conditions, and strong, but also gentle. They plant easily, can adapt to different lands, but most importantly, they work together with each other to grow with intention, their fruits and flowers are for the future generations' growth, and to contribute to our environment, and to our community."
To learn more about this collective of artists and activists, click here. To learn more about our SAAM 2018 events, visit our SAAM page here. Be sure to stop by one of our SAAM 2018 events to pick up some of our swag, featuring the beautiful art created by the Nopalera Artist Collective. You may also download a poster featuring their art here.
Members of the Nopalera Artist Collective.
Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2018 Preview
Every April the Rape Recovery Center participates in Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), a nationwide effort to raise our collective consciousness around issues of sexual violence. This year, we are excited to offer a wide range of events to engage our community in exciting ways.
Every April the Rape Recovery Center participates in Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), a nationwide effort to raise our collective consciousness around issues of sexual violence. This year, we are excited to offer a wide range of events to engage our community in exciting ways. With offerings ranging from Zumba and art workshops to a bar hop, we hope you will find something on our SAAM calendar that fits for you. It all kicks off with a Facebook Live event on April 2nd, where we will give you a tour of the center, introduce you to some of our awesome staff, and give you a preview of the month ahead. See our full list of SAAM events, and stay connected to us on social media for updates all month long.
You will also find many exciting SAAM events from our partner agencies. The Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault is hosting their annual Utah Sexual Violence Conference and SAAM awards. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center's website has excellent resources and information as part of their 2018 SAAM campaign, including guides on planning your own SAAM event!
However you decide to participate in SAAM, we hope you will find ways to celebrate hope and healing, and learn about how we can work together to end sexual violence in our communities.