Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month

Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month

Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month is recognized in April. This month uses the color teal for its observance. Personalized Cause offers teal awareness ribbons, pins and wristbands to call attention to sexual assault awareness and prevention.

The Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Movement

As long as there have been people who care about making the world a better place, there have been advocates. Advocates, in this movement, are individuals advocating for sexual assault prevention.

In the United States, movements for social change and equality gained traction in the 1940s and 1950s. This started with the civil rights era. Although open discussion of the realities of sexual assault and domestic violence were limited at these times, activists for equal rights began to challenge the status quo.

Social Activism

The first rape crisis center was founded in San Francisco in 1971. This is the same city where the first U.S. Take Back the Night event was held seven years later. The following decades mobilized survivors and advocates to call for legislation and funding that support survivors of sexual violence, such as the Violence Against Women Act of 1993.

Awareness and Prevention

In the early 2000s, the primary goal of Sexual Assault Awareness Month was to highlight the need for sexual assault awareness. This was awareness about both raising visibility of the teal ribbon and the meaning behind it. By the mid-2000s, SAAM incorporated prevention more heavily, focusing on areas such as communities, workplaces, and college campuses. These campaigns discussed ways that individuals and communities can stop sexual assault. The campaigns focused on preventing assault before it happens by changing behaviors and promoting respect.

These two goals of awareness and prevention carried over into the 2010s, laying the groundwork for the SAAM that we see today. While each campaign has a different theme, they all share same common goals. The goals are to raise visibility about sexual assault and share recommendations for prevention. Awareness includes, for example, education about healthy sexuality, consent, or bystander intervention.