April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), which means discussions about issues that some consider uncomfortable, and most try to avoid thinking about.

The goal of the 2012 SAAM campaign centers on promoting health sexuality to prevent sexual violence. SAAM’s overall goal is to, “raise public awareness about sexual violence and to educate communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual violence.”

As archived by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), SAAM can trace its origins to the first organized woman’s protests against violence in the United States in 1975, “Take back the Night,” which occurred in Philadelphia in October after microbiologist Susan Alexander Speeth was murdered.

This movement went international with The International Tribunal on Crimes against Women, which occurred in Belgium, March 4 through March 8. Two thousand women representing 40 different countries attended this protest. Both of these protests consisted of women holding a candlelight procession through the streets.

Then, in the late 1980’s, the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NCASA) polled state sexual assault coalitions to determine the time for a National Sexual Assault Week. They decided on a week in April.

With sexual assault advocates planning events regularly throughout the month of April, in the late 1990’s the idea of an entire month to bring awareness to the problem of sexual assault was born. Then in 2000, the Resource Sharing Project and NSVRC polled all state, territory and tribal coalitions and it was decided that April would be the preferred month and teal would be the color to represent it.

The first Sexual Assault Awareness Month was observed in April 2001.

On Iowa State’s campus, events will be coordinated throughout this month of April by ACCESS (Assault Care Center Extending Shelter and Support), the Margaret Sloss Woman’s Center, the ISU and Ames police departments and multiple student organizations and faculty members.

ACCESS began, with the help of the Government of the Student Body, as a rape crisis center in 1974. They have grown since then to operate a 24-hour crisis hotline and provide a safe haven for victims of sexual and domestic violence.

ACCESS serves Story, Boone and Greene counties, by spreading their mission,“to address the roots and impact of domestic and sexual violence through services that enhance safety, empower survivors, and promote understanding and social justice within our community.”

The Sloss House is the main office that handles programming for SAAM here at ISU,

“SAAM is all about raising awareness” said Christine Peterson, a graduate student studying Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. “The house is more of a part of the healing process for women, not just a place to go and get stuff done about it.”

According to ACCESS, 1 in 6 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime, and college age women are 6 times more likely to be sexually assaulted then others. 60 percent of the assaults are never reported to the police.

According to SART (Sexual Assault Response Team) for Story County, there have been 273 documented cases of sexual assault from 2006 to 2011. Of those, 265 of them were women, and 94 of them were Iowa State Students.

While sexual assault cases have declined by 60 percent since 1996, SAAM is still working to end these occurrences completely.

SAAM activities this month include: Iowa State police handing out anti-assault magnets and a Take Back the Night rally on April 11. A showing of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” will be held at the Sloss house on April 13.

Jaclyn Friedman, a writer, speaker and activist, will speak on April 17 in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. The Clothesline Project, a display of t-shirts designed by assault survivors addressing the issues of violence against women will be held on April 17. “These Hands Don’t Hurt” a chance for people to pledge themselves against sexual violence will also be held on April 17.

A showing of the film “Rosita” at the Sloss house with will be the final planned event on April 20.