April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The month of April is an important time for everyone here at Appleseed Community Mental Health Center. Each April, staff at Appleseed’s RCDV Safe Haven Program promotes awareness of sexual assault, harassment, and abuse and prevention of this crime through a variety of educational events and presentations. The month of April also brought on some difficulties, however, with the COVID-19 Pandemic bringing many of the planned events of the month to a halt and many others had to be revised or rescheduled. Our Outreach & Prevention Coordinator, Alison Webb, was extremely busy despite the quick need to modify planned activities. Alison had planned multiple events during the month digitally in place of face-to-face presentations due to the social distancing restrictions in place. One such event was the Denim Day video Alison had made for the awareness campaign. Denim Day is a sexual assault awareness campaign that began after a ruling by the Italian Supreme Court where a rape conviction was overturned because the justices felt that since the victim was wearing tight jeans she must have helped the person who raped her remove her jeans, thereby implying consent. The following day, the women in the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the victim. The video reached hundreds of people across Ashland and showed Survivors that they are not alone. Appleseed CHMC staff also showed their support by wearing denim on April 29th for an outreach photo for our social media pages. You can watch the Denim day video down below, or on Safe Haven’s Facebook  www.facebook.com/RCDV SafeHaven.  Safe Haven also held a trauma-sensitive glow yoga event that allowed the community to come together over Facebook Live and join in on a full yoga session led by local instructor Jody Thomae. The event was held digitally on the social media accounts of both Appleseed and Safe Haven. The yoga live stream reached over 700 people!
            A very special week that affects many people here at Appleseed and Safe Haven is National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW) is an annual event that promotes victims' rights and services throughout the country. Many of our community members wrote various quotes on what they do to serve victims of crime in our community, and why it is so important to advocate for victims of crime. You may watch that video down below or also on RCDV Safe Haven’s Facebook page.
            As we head into May, we look forward to continuing to serve our community as well as reaching out to those who need it. Appleseed Community Mental Health may be reached during normal business hours at (419) 281-3716, or you can call our 24/7 crisis line at (419) 289-6111. If you or someone you know has been impacted by domestic violence or sexual assault, help is available over the Safe Haven crisis line 24/7 at (419) 289-8085