Mather Center offers events for learning and support
As the nation’s annual observance of Sexual Assault Awareness Month continues, Case Western Reserve University leaders are encouraging campus community members to participate in events—and work to advance the month’s goals throughout the year.
“Sexual Assault Awareness Month offers an annual opportunity to focus our community around ways to prevent this violence through education and advocacy,” said President Eric W. Kaler. “As our ‘It’s on CWRU’ campaign underscores, we all share a daily responsibility to end sexual misconduct on our campus.”
Added Provost Ben Vinson III: “I commend the team at the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women for their ongoing efforts to increase awareness of sexual assault and ways to support those who have suffered from it. I also encourage every member of our community to learn more about how they can help change a culture where such violence continues to exist.”
There will be numerous opportunities for the university community to get involved throughout the month. This Friday, April 14, for example, the Mather Center is hosting a #MeToo Movie Night, where the #MeToo CWRU student group will screen a film and follow it with a discussion. Additional events will follow; check the center’s upcoming events calendar for more information.
“I encourage members of the community who have not yet participated to join us this month,” Mather Center Director Angela Clark-Taylor said, “and in our ongoing efforts to end sexual violence in higher education by promoting community responsibility and healing.”
For the 22nd anniversary of Sexual Assault Awareness Month’s observance, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center has adopted the theme “Prevention Demands Equity.”
“We can trace a line from sexual violence to systems of oppression,” the organization explains, “and we can’t end sexual violence without also ending racism.”
A 2022 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publication found that nearly two-thirds of multi-racial women reported experiencing sexual violence, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetimes—as did more than half of Black women surveyed.
“As a campaign, ‘It’s On CWRU’ aims to help each member of our university recognize the unique role they can play in reducing and preventing power-based personal violence,” said Emily Saxon, a graduate student who supports education efforts at the Mather Center. “Throughout April, the Mather Center’s calendar of programming aims to create a shared awareness of sexual assault and to empower campus community members to be a part of institutional-level change.”