When someone tells you they’ve been raped, what will your reaction be? The Ames Police Department wants to be sure that reaction does not offend sexual assault victims.

Start By Believing is a public awareness campaign focused on the public’s response to sexual assault. The campaign is a program for the End Violence Against Women International organization. Because a friend or family member is typically the first person a victim talks to, that person’s reaction is extremely important, members of Ames Police said.

Ames Police and members of the Story County Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) have partnered together to launch the Start By Believing Campaign in Story County.

Suzy Owens and Elijah Hansen, detectives, and Brooke Long, intern with the department, are leaders of the campaign.

“We want to encourage the first contacts of a victim to be supportive. We want the victim to know they are believed and that they will have help in their healing and recovery,” Owens said.

This is the first campaign of its kind focused on the support of the victim, rather than preventing the actual assault. The simple step of support without judgment has a huge impact on the victim’s decision to report the crime, Owens said. This campaign is a positive asset to a very negative situation.

“As soon as people hear this campaign, they get behind it,” Long said.

The campaign team is making the public aware through simple presentations and social media. Student and service organizations are some of the groups they present to in order to spread the word.

“The mentality of jury members and our overall population is constantly victim-blaming, and I don’t think it’s fair to blame the victims for the trauma they’ve been through,” Hansen said.

Students responded to the campaign in a positive way, the team said.

“I think that with all the sexual assaults in the news recently, this campaign is an important resource for people on college campuses,” said Morgan Muller, freshman in agriculture business.

Dusty Jentz, junior in communication studies, said he wants to see the campaign change the public’s opinion.

“It’s a start in the right direction of making the public aware of the impact their response has on sexual assault victims,” Jentz said.

Only 5 percent of sexual assaults will be reported, investigated and prosecuted. Fewer than 3 percent will result in conviction and incarceration, Hansen said. If the victim’s family and friends believe and support them, they are more likely to report the assault, and stop the perpetrator from attacking again.

“Sexual assault will never stop. While we want to prevent it, we realize that it won’t go away, so let’s deal with the aftermath,” Owens said.

For more information on the campaign, contact the ISU Police Department or Ames Police.