The college’s Get Involved organization is assembling a panel to discuss sexual assault this month. the events will bring awareness to the topic and highlight Sexual Assault Awareness month. The Start by Believing series will begin April 1.
Victoria Corral is one of the Student Life ambassadors behind the planning of the Start by Believing: Sexual Assault Awareness Month event. Corral wants to impact the people who attend the event throughout the week with the message to help people that have suffered sexual assault. From the survivor and the supporters, she has the goal of making people understand that it is okay to talk about it.
“Since it is a very sensitive topic, we want to say that it is okay to talk about it,” Corral said. “And more than talk, we want to provide the resources to those who have suffered from this issue…also bringing more people to this community that can helps, not only as a survivor, but also as a supporter. We want to bring awareness to the topic.”
Ana Marmolejo, Student Life’s marketing team lead, believes that this event will provide students the opportunity to think outside of the box while also having and understanding the resources available to them.
“I think this (Start by Believing: Sexual Assault Awareness month) gives people an opportunity to think outside of the box, to be like a resource to others and to align the organization with the students that have been thought this kind of situation,” Marmolejo said. “I feel like JCCC provides a lot of resources and sometimes students don’t know how to get these resources and to get more information about it (sexual assault).”
The calendar for this event was planned strategically. The speaker, Tim Mousseau, a victim of sexual assault, will open the awareness month at his presentation for the Leadership Speakers series. Corral believes that bringing a speaker to kick off the month is essential to the events success.
“We brought the speaker in the first day because we wanted him to be the start of the conversation,.” Corral said. “That is how we wanted to plan the event focusing on him, and then developing some activities for student in Get Involved. Even though we try to research to give accurate information, we still want to hear a professional, some who know more about the topic. Since he is a survivor, he has a different spectrum about the topic.”
From events that will last all of April to the daily events, Coral thinks that it can help people participate because of the innumerable chances the event will provide to the colleges’ community to learn.
“We are trying to make different events throughout the month, and some of them are going to start first of April and end on the thirty so everybody can participate. Other events will be only daily,.” Corral said.
For more information about the event, go to Get Involved, enter the direct link to the college’s Start by Believing page, or accesses the Start by Believing movement website.
By Matheus Camossa