Information About Why April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

All content is from their web page.
A Brief History of SAAM (click on link to go to NSVRC source of this invormation)

SAAM ThemeThe Color Teal SAAM Five-Year Plans National Conference Calls FAQs
Women’s organized protests against violence began in the late 1970s in England, with Take Back the Night marches. These women-only protests emerged in direct response to the violence that women encountered as they walked the streets at night. These activities became more coordinated and soon developed into a movement that extended to the United States and, by 1978, the first Take Back the Night events in the U.S. were held in San Francisco and New York City. Over time, sexual assault awareness activities expanded to include the issue of sexual violence against men and men’s participation in ending sexual violence.
By the early 1980s, substantial interest developed in coordinating activities to raise awareness of violence against women. As a result, time was set aside during October to raise awareness of violence against women issues. Over time, October became the principle focus of domestic violence awareness activities. Sexual assault advocates looked for a separate time to focus attention on sexual assault issues.
In the late 1980s, the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NCASA) informally polled state sexual assault coalitions to determine when to have a national Sexual Assault Awareness Week. A week in April was selected. Over time, however, some advocates began focusing attention on sexual violence throughout the month of April. In the late 1990s, many advocates began coordinating activities throughout the month of April on a regular basis, promoting an idea for a nationally recognized month for sexual violence awareness activities.
From 2000-2001, the Resource Sharing Project (RSP) and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), polled state, territory, and tribal coalitions and found that the color teal was the preferred color for sexual assault awareness and prevention and April was the most preferred month to coordinate national sexual assault awareness activities, respectively. As a result, Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) was first observed nationally in April 2001.
Since then, the NSVRC has continued to promote a degree of national unity in voice and action regarding SAAM activities, encourage interaction and feedback from across the nation, and build momentum based on the previous years’ activities. The NSVRC has provided resources to advocates nationwide to help them plan SAAM activities in their communities during April and throughout the year. These resources have included publications (e.g., newsletters, booklets, and directories); prevention materials (e.g., palm cards and online resources); and awareness-raising products (e.g., pins, posters, stickers, and postcards). Additionally, the NSVRC has taken an active role in making sexual violence awareness and prevention resources available to the U.S. territories and the healthcare community. More recently, the NSVRC has placed increasing emphasis on the prevention of sexual violence. As a result, its SAAM campaigns have included a greater focus on prevention as well.
This site is supported by Grant/ Cooperative Agreement No. H28/CCH317184-05 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From Pk here ... on the following web page, there is information links that give links to information on all the different types of assaults, and resources to help people through those assaults. Whoever knew there were so many different ways to hurt so many different people?resources
materials about sexual violence
types of sexual violence
child sexual abuse
drug facilitated sexual assault
hate crimes
incest
internet / technology-based crimes
intimate partner sexual assault
rape / sexual assault
sexual harassment
sexual violence by professionals
stalking
statutory rape
trafficking / sexual exploitation
strategies / responses
anti-sexual violence movement
collaborative reponses
faith-based responses
legal
medical / health
prevention
public policy
research
SAAM outreach

comment this area out for launch
So, here we have some information about outreach. These topics will
also be listed and linked. But, when you get to any of the topic or
sub-topic pages, e.g., when reading about outreach or an outreach
topic, the items on types of sexual abuse, strategies and responses,
and organizations will not be listed. Read down for more about this
concept.
*you'll need to go to their page for these links, they do not work*

adolescent
adult
bisexual
campus
child
cultually-specific communities
deaf communities
economically-disadvantaged communities
elder
faith-based
gay men
immigrant
lesbians
male victims
migrant
military
multilingual resources
people with disabilities
people in prison
refugees
rural
transgendered

-->
organizations
state and territory coalitions
all organizations alphabetically listed
sexual violence specific
children / youth
college / university
deaf and hearing-impaired advocacy
drug and alcohol
elders
faith-based
federal government
health
institution / professional abuse
law enforcement
legal
lgbt
male victims / survivors
men's groups
multicultural
native american
offenders / perpetrators
pornography / prostitution / trafficking
public policy
research and statistics
stalking
survivors' support
web-based resources
other
publications
All publications
Newsletters
Booklets
Directories
News releases
saam
What is SAAM?
History
NSVRC Documents National SAAM Proclamation -->
NSVRC Campaigns/Materials
2004
2003
2002
2000-2001
Essential Elements to Developing a SAAM Campaign
SAAM resource book
2005 National Calendar of Events
Other Campaigns and Resources
National
State / Territory / Local
Spanish Language Materials
calendar
Conferences
Fundraisers
Other events
SAAM
Trainings
jobs
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Development
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