This April, we’ll ask you to again Embrace Your Voice! The past year has been especially hard, and it’s more important than ever to educate our communities about sexual violence, services available for victims, and how we can work to prevent this violence. Join us for 2022 Sexual Assault Awareness Month by using this resource we’ve created for you!

Our 2022 SAAM Theme

It’s easier to address complex problems if we work together. Sexual violence is 100% preventable—and everyone can play a role in that prevention. And everyone can play a role in supporting survivors who are harmed before we make that a reality. OAESV’s 2022 Sexual Assault Awareness Month campaign builds on this vision with a call to action, “Embrace Your Voice: Build Community.”

In a connected community, people feel like they matter and belong, and they feel empowered to embrace their voices and call people in. In Ohio and beyond, there are incredible initiatives, organizations, and movements to end gender-based violence. The thing is, violence is connected. All of these organizations and individuals are working toward similar and interconnected goals, and many are collaborating beautifully. We want to encourage more of this collaboration, and less of working in silos. We know that we can build communities centered on respect, inclusion, and safety where violence is taken seriously. Our 2022 SAAM campaign talks about real-world ways we can break down these silos, and the importance of community connectedness.

This toolkit dives deeper into topics like:

• Building stronger sexual assault services through collaboration
• Shifting prevention strategies
• Engaging men in the movement and supporting men as survivors
• Being trauma-informed in legal systems
• Speaking to your legislators about public policy, such as Erin’s Law, and more.

Apart, we can only do so much; together, we can do a lot more. Together we can make a difference in the movement. We can provide comprehensive, coordinated rape crisis services to survivors. We can emphasize primary prevention, including efforts to change social norms, behaviors, and practices to cultivate a community climate free from violence. There is power and strength in the collective.

OAESV has been working behind the scenes to create materials to support organizations in providing services to survivors and in educating and engaging their communities during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Will you join us this April by sharing educational resources, participating in the #30DaysofSAAM Instagram Challenge, embracing the continuing education resources we’ve created, and more?

Throughout this packet, you’ll find various tools for brainstorming and planning. These support you in engaging with the community you serve during 2022 Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

We hope these tools will allow you to spark conversations in your communities with the ultimate goal of serving and supporting survivors, engaging co-survivors and community members, and raising funds to support the sustainability of your programs.

These tools have the capability of connecting us in solidarity all across Ohio, linked by our commitment to ending sexual violence. Toward the end of the month, we also have the opportunity to be in community with one another online for our annual Advocacy Day, where #TheTimeIsNow to engage our legislators—and each other—in deep discussions about our state’s needs and how those needs have increased since the beginning of 2020!

Providing the Best Services to Survivors

• Disclosing Sexual Violence: Telling Loved Ones About Sexual Violence
• Supporting a Loved One Who’s Been Victimized
• Being Trauma Informed in Legal Systems
• Promising Practices in Remote Advocacy
• Resource Booklet: Engaging Men
• Speaking to Your Legislators About Public Policy (coming soon)