April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Part 7
Thursday, April 9th, 2015 -- 11:37 AM
-April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.I spoke with Melissa Geldernick, the Sexual Assault Advocate for the Personal Development Center.
Melissa explained some of the initiatives the department does in recognition of the month.
She said, "We do a fundraiser at a bar in Marshfield and it's a volleyball tournament. Throughout the day we do a 50/50 Raffle, sell drinks and stuff like that. We're doing that on April 25th. We don't have a lot of the details set in stone yet, but all that information will be on our Facebook Page or on our website if people are interested."
"I'm actually partnering with the Family Center out of Wisconsin Rapids. They're also a dual advocacy agency. But, they also have a shelter program. That's something that we don't have in Marshfield and something that we don't have in Clark. So, I'm partnering with the Sexual Assault Advocate from Wisconsin Rapids. Her name is Kim. We're doing an event at UW-Marshfield/Wood County. We were going to be heading everything and now the students wanted to take it on and just kind of roll with it. We're just kind of there as resources if they have questions."
"I'm really excited to see what they're going to do with it because they're actually going to be looking at what a bystander is. How does language influence the way that we view victims of sexual assault and how does that influence the rape culture that we have as well. So, they're actually taking that language and societal piece of it and going to tackle that. That will be on April 29th. We're doing it on Denim Day from 6 to 8pm. So, that will be a niece little event for teachers and students and that campus just to bring about some awareness."
Coming up on Friday, we'll hear about the PDC's role in child sexual assault cases.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.