Walk the red carpet

Event raising awareness of sexual violence

Go 2 clothing designers and owners of JEMS Boutique are putting down the red carpet and raising awareness for Island victims of sexual assault.

With the support of Island Mothers Helping Mothers cofounder Sarah Stewart-Clark and ECMA nominated singersongwriter Kinley, Julia and Maureen Campbell are hosting a launch event on Saturday, April 28 at JEMS from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Last year, Kinley wrote the song, “Microphone’’, recounting the night she was raped in a field after her prom 16 years ago. As a result of the response to the song, a video campaign called “Sharing the Microphone’’ is underway, created to educate P.E.I. youth, boys and girls, about the devastating and longterm impacts of sexual assault.

The goal is to dramatically reduce the incidents of sexual assault that occur in P.E.I. each year.

Stewart Clark started helping new mothers in P.E.I. when she was on maternity leave with her son. The now 5,000-member group provides judgement free support and resources to low income mothers. She conducted a mental health study in 2017 that demonstrated that one-quarter of Islanders have experienced sexual assault and one-fifth who responded to the survey reported being sexually abused as a child.

Last year, Statistics Canada changed its rate of sexual assaults that are reported to police to five per cent, which makes the number of Islanders victimized by sexual violence at about 2,000 per year. Lack of immediate mental health support is an ongoing challenge for women who have been victimized.

Island Mothers Helping Mothers is helping mothers in rural communities to access private counselling in their communities so that they don’t have to wait so long to receive mental health supports following incidents of sexual violence.

JEMS is donating 20 per cent of sales for the day to the mothers’ organization and “Sharing the Microphone’’. They will also be giving away 10 $100 Go 2 Clothing gift cards to 10 lucky winners for the purchase of a $10 raffle ticket, all of which will go to the mothers organization and “Sharing the Microphone’’.

For more information, contact Julia Campbell at Julia@ jemsboutique.ca or call 902-2131604.