Sexual Assault Awareness Week meant to get people talking

Education and awareness campaigns will be running across the province through Saskatchewan Sexual Assault Awareness Week, May 15 to 19.

“A lot of people don’t want to talk about it. If we get it out there that it is OK to talk about it, I think that it will kind of prevent those myths of sexual assault from happening,” said Kerrie Isaac, executive director of the Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan (SASS).

One in three females and one in six males are sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Aboriginal women are three times more likely to be assaulted than non-Aboriginal women. Ninety-one per cent of sexual assaults are not reported to the police.

Saskatchewan has one of the highest rates of sexual victimization in Canada.

SASS has made and distributed brochures, graphics and promotional items. The group is running a teal ribbon campaign to raise awareness as well.

“Saskatchewan has more isolated, rural and remote communities, so getting the help that’s needed there is very hard. Other provinces are ahead of us in terms of prevention programs and public awareness campaigns too,” Isaac said.

Saskatchewan is the only province without a sexual violence action plan, but SASS is working to change that. The group has received funding through the Status of Women Canada to start a threeyear project to create a sexual violence action plan for the province.

“Collectively all our members came together and said this is a need and we need to get it done,” Isaac said.

The first step is to complete a needs assessment of the province to identify gaps in access to services. The group will then draft a document from this information.

The document will include what supports are available provincially and the services provided. It will also include ideas of what can be done to improve the statistics and likelihood of victims reporting sexual assaults.

Other provinces’ plans are relatively new, having been implemented within the last few years.

Isaac said provincially there have been some steps forward such as the interim report on domestic violence released last week and the University of Regina’s gender violence report released in March.

“We’ve seen (sexual violence) more now than ever in the last year or two in the news. I don’t think it was ever not happening, I think it’s just (people are) being a little bit more vocal ... which is a good thing,” Isaac said.