Every April, the anti-gender-based violence community sees an outpouring of efforts and events calling attention to Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). It’s a wonderful opportunity to engage new people in this movement. Since last April, we’ve seen big cultural conversations happening around high-profile gender-based violence cases such as Diddy’s and the Epstein files. It feels like momentum has been steadily building, and more people are beginning to see these issues as systemic and permeated in our culture. These cases and experiences are not instances of an otherwise working system failing a few times, but rather a clear illustration of how flawed the existing systems have been for a very long time. People are seeing patterns in the way survivors, and their trauma, are mishandled, joked about, made light of, or outright ignored.
The silver lining of more public attention on these cases and discourse is that we have more eyes on these often-stigmatized issues. More people are stepping into the anti-gender-based violence movement and asking how they can create change.
The silencing of survivors
These high-profile cases have highlighted how widespread the issue of sexual violence is. Survivorship is very common. It’s not just adults, it’s children. It’s not only women and girls, but also boys and men. Survivors are found on college campuses, in schools of any age, and are also in much older, later stages of life. There are survivors who are living in poverty, with limited resources, and there are survivors who are wealthy and famous. Survivors exist everywhere. Survivors from all walks of life often and unfortunately express a common experience: attempts to silence them.
There are a variety of things that can make survivors feel silenced. Perpetrators and abusers could be the first to tell them to keep something a secret, or to tell them that no one will believe them if they do speak up. The institutions survivors count on for help may silence them, such as the police or a hospital not taking their reporting seriously, their school not helping them enough, or sweeping it under the rug. If the first person a survivor discloses an experience to responds with disbelief, blame, or shame, that response leads to silencing. All of these factors, on their own or in combination, lead survivors to feel doubted, dismissed, alone, unsupported, and silenced.
Speaking out shatters silence
It’s not easy or simple for survivors to disregard or fight through this silencing. When it happens, some survivors protect themselves by choosing not to pursue the systems or individuals that have added to their harm. This response often comes after it is made clear that getting help through these systems or individuals will be complicated, if not impossible.
Survivors can speak out and break their silence in ways that feel right and safe for them. “Speaking out” might not mean literally sharing your story with the masses. It might mean finding one person who will listen and provide a safe space. Speaking out in any form is a way survivors can find empowerment after major adversity.
Survivors speaking out makes other survivors feel less alone. There is common ground, and community can be quickly created through this shared experience. While every survivor and their stories are different, there are so many common traits and experiences of strength, resilience, and tenacity that survivors quickly recognize in one another. Survivors speaking out can be a source of strength not only for themselves and their fellow survivors, but it’s also a way to raise awareness and create lasting change for future generations, too. Survivor’s words break through to people. They are the ones that shift cultural and collective thinking about sexual violence. Shared stories can shift thinking about sexual harm from a distant, anonymous statistic into a real person with a human story deserving of attention and justice. These are the vital moments that invite people into this movement and keep them engaged. Once someone becomes truly aware of the issues of sexual harm via a person whose story resonates, they can join these efforts, creating a ripple effect of involvement.
Awareness as the first step in change
Survivors and allies speaking out against sexual harm is necessary for SAAM to go beyond awareness, towards real movement and long-term change. Public Policy and Advocacy is one of CAASE’s four main programs. The overarching goal of our policy work is to advocate for legislation (both locally and nationally) that is survivor-centered. Our policy work addresses issues that impact survivors the most, including decriminalizing selling sex, because many of the survivors we serve are survivors of the sex trade.
Nicole Denise Saulsberry, Ph.D., CAASE’s director of policy, spoke with us about our team’s approach to supporting survivors via the Survivor Model.
“In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, I am proud that CAASE is honoring survivors of sexual assault, not just through awareness, but by providing channels for their voices to be heard. CAASE’s legal team and community engagement department gives a voice to these brave survivors, where they can seek legal help, but also express themselves through poetry and storytelling. Moreover, CAASE is in full support of the Survivor Model approach, or partial decriminalization, which decriminalizes the survivors of the sex trade and criminalizes the purchasers. This is a game-changer because it gives survivors the freedom to seek help without fear of law enforcement. Hopefully, next year, Illinois will follow in the footsteps of Maine by becoming the second state in the nation to pass and enforce survivor model legislation.”
Supporting survivors who have been silenced and listening to those who choose to speak out are simple and powerful ways to spread awareness about sexual violence. Awareness isn’t our end goal, but rather a vital first step in engaging those who are unfamiliar with the anti-gender-based violence movement. Allies can help by creating safe spaces for survivors to speak freely and openly about their experiences, while letting survivors lead.
We care about and advocate for better treatment of survivors because we know it’s possible. SAAM is the perfect time to spread education about this work and let others know that if you’re not happy with the ways survivors are being treated, we can and should take action. When we work together, united in our ultimate goals of healing and justice, significant cultural change becomes more attainable, and we will make progress, person by person, story by story, toward a world free from sexual harm.
Check out these other resources from CAASE to honor SAAM:
- Survivor Voices, a project from CAASE, where we source and spotlight writing by survivors.
This piece was published on April 13, 2026. It was authored by Lizzy Springer and edited by Ryan Spooner. Learn more about our staff.
