SAAM 2020 Resources
Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) is held every April. This year, the Safe Office events to honor survivors looked and felt different during COVID-19. We are grateful for the wonderful community building that occurred remotely. Thank you for engaging with us virtually. Below is a culmination of resources related to SAAM that we featured and talked about throughout April.
Trigger warning: These resources contain detailed accounts of sexual and interpersonal violence. They also contain commentaries about how race, gender, sexual orientation, documentation status, legal history/incarceration, and ability status intersect with survivorship and experiences of violence. Take care of yourself. The Safe Office is available on our 24/7 crisis line 336.758.5285.
EVENTS AND ONGOING RESOURCES FROM SAM 2020
The LGBTQ+ Center partnered with us to host a special edition of their weekly C3 (Building Community over Coffee and Conversation) in honor of SAAM. We talked about consent from a queer lens, and LGBTQ+ Center staff taught us a lot about queer theory. Want to continue this conversation? We do too, feel free to reach out!
All survivors deserve to feel heard, and those who hold marginalized identities are more likely to be ignored. We shared podcasts, videos, poems, and articles on Instagram. Find resources and links here to everything we posted. Please take the time to truly listen to these survivors and their stories about how violence has affected their lives within the context of intersectional identities they hold.
We hosted a virtual pledge reading in which Wake and Winston Salem community members came together to honor survivors, and pledge to continue the work of creating a culture of respect. This pledge was originally created by the WFU Safe Office last April, in collaboration with students from Wake and other local colleges. We added a few things this year and hope to add to the pledge each April as we continue to collaborate with partners and gain new insights. Thank you to Steph Trilling in the Women’s Center for providing us with last year’s pledge so that we can continue to build on amazing work that has already been done. Want a copy of the pledge? Reach out to us at safe@wfu.edu!
Body Empowerment Yoga:
The Women’s Center co-hosted a virtual body empowerment yoga with us. We were grateful to be led through a flow by Asia Parker alongside (virtually) community members. The Women’s Center directed everyone to a soothing playlist to use in the background. Music is linked here for your enjoyment or meditation!
Listen to this conversation among Jasper Privat from the Counseling Center, J Mai from the LGBTQ+ Center, and Bethany Miller from the Safe Office as they discuss queer survivorship. Access the audio file, transcript, and resource documents here.
J: “I’m realizing, like how untouched this topic is when we think about survivorship. And I think one of my biggest takeaways is oh my gosh, like, there’s actually so much there. And then I’m realizing like LGBTQ+ survivorship is like, I knew it, but I’m feeling feeling it that it’s so erased from these narratives of surviving, of survivorship. And so, that’s my takeaway, like wow, this is real, and uh, we need more, like I need more, on this.”