Sexual Assault Awareness Month – April 2022   In April, Rape Response commemorated Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), an annual campaign to raise public awareness about sexual assault and educate communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual violence. Staff wore teal outfits and ribbons to recognize the month’s liturgical color. Staff also took part in a number of on-campus events, including UNG’S Clothesline Project and Healthy Relationship Hut. We also tabled at North Georgia Tech’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month March. And to top off the month, we hosted a Rape Response Volunteer Documentary Night, viewing the acclaimed film, ‘Procession‘, & leading a discussion about the impact of the message! Thank you to the staff, volunteers, and interns who participated in SAAM events. We are always honored to represent our organization, mission, and survivors any chance we get!                                           

America Ferrera – Survivor Spotlight! America Ferrera is a widely-recognized Honduran-American actress best known for her roles in Real Women Have Curves, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and most famously as Betty Suarez on the ABC’s comedy-drama television series Ugly Betty. An LA native and youngest of 6, many know that she began as a child actress when she was a teenager. What some may not know is that America was unfortunately sexually assaulted by an older man as a young girl. “I told no one and lived with the shame and guilt thinking all along that I, a 9-year-old child, was somehow responsible for the actions of a grown man,” said America in a 2017 #MeToo Instagram post. “I had to see this man on a daily basis for years to come,” she continued. “He would smile at me and wave, and I would hurry past him, my blood

Welcome new RRI Campus Advocate, Sarah Marin! Sarah will be serving as Rape Response’s Campus Advocate & Outreach Coordinator. Sarah recently obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, with a minor in Education from Brenau University. She began volunteering with RRI in February of 2021 as a way to help survivors in her community. In her role, Sarah will serve as the primary advocate for the 4 Universities and 2 Technical Colleges in our 6-county radius. She will also schedule and coordinate University and College outreach/awareness programs, develop campus resources for survivors of sexual violence, and provide training for campus professionals. In her free time Sarah enjoys hiking, shopping, spending time with family, fostering pets and volunteering at the local animal shelter.

Empathy is an important trait that is absolutely crucial not just for victim advocates to possess, but for anyone trying to be supportive towards their friends, family, or loved ones who are going through tough times or experiencing some form of hardship. So what exactly is empathy? Empathy can be described as the ability to understand and share someone else’s feelings, or as the expression goes, to “walk a mile in their shoes.” Empathy is more than simply being sympathetic towards someone’s pain. To truly be empathetic means to feel more than just sorry for those who share their feelings with you, but to also connect with their pain and recognize their struggle in some capacity as well. Being empathetic, like all things, takes practice. Here are a few tips to help you become a more empathetic person: Actively listen more than you speak Listen to understand and offer support

In our nation today, teen dating violence is more common than people suspect. According to the Love is Respect Teen Hotline, “One in three teens in the US will experience physical, sexual, or emotional abuse from someone they’re in a relationship with before they become adults, and nearly half (43%) of college women report experiencing violent or abusive dating behaviors.” Because this issue so heavily affects youth within the United States, former president Barack Obama released a proclamation stating that February would be named Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month (TDVAM).  As an agency that works with and supports teens throughout their healing journeys after an assault, this month is very important to our organization. Teens experiences some of the highest rates of sexual assault/violence in the nation, and along with their victimization, the aftermath of teen dating violence often affects the families, friends, and communities of that survivor

Katherine Johnson Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician who calculated and analyzed the flight paths of many spacecrafts during her more than three decades with the U.S. space program. Her work helped send astronauts to the Moon. When she was a small child, it became apparent that she had a brilliant intelligence and amazing skill with numbers. She attended high school at the young age of 10! She then went on to graduate college at 18 years old with her bachelor’s degree in mathematics and French. While teaching in Virginia, she was selected to be one of the first three African American students to enroll in a graduate program at West Virginia University In 1953 she started working for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ West Area Computing unit. This committee was made up of African American women who manually performed complex mathematical calculations for the engineers in the programs.

Medical Accompaniment for a SANE exam Rape Response Advocates support sexual assault survivors in the hospital emergency department. Survivors living within our six county service area (Habersham, Forsyth, Lumpkin, Dawson, Hall, and White) can receive a Forensic Medical Exam at the Northeast Georgia Medical Center-Gainesville. During this exam, a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) collects evidence, examines and documents any injuries and offers preventative treatment for possible pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The main focus of accompaniment, as an Advocate, is to stay by the survivor’s side and provide support throughout their entire journey in the emergency room, walking them through any questions they may have throughout the process. Survivors are given a lot of information during this traumatic time in their life; Rape Response is there to help as much or as little as survivors need in order to feel as comfortable and informed as possible during this time.

Crisis Intervention Crisis intervention can look like many different things for different people. Advocates provide various ways of meeting with survivors, such as phone or face-to-face sessions, as well as Zoom meetings to accommodate those who may not be comfortable meeting in-person. As staff, we want to cater to the needs of the survivor at all times, especially during a crisis intervention. Sometimes this looks like an advocate sitting and actively listening to the words, needs, and wants of the survivor. Other times it can look like an advocate providing support, comfort, and resource referrals to the survivor when the thoughts and feelings of the survivor may be hard to communicate. Although our Advocates are not licensed counselors, they are trained specifically in victim services and have tools to help survivors feel uplifted and cared for during some of the hardest moments of their lives. It doesn’t matter if an