What is SAAM?

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) and the amount of activity and response online has been amazing.

SAAM is a campaign geared towards raising public awareness about sexual violence and educate communities on how to prevent it. The theme for this year is “Embrace Your Voice,” which aims to:

“Help individuals, communities and the private sector understand how they can take action to promote safety, respect and equality to stop sexual assault before it happens.”

When I heard that the theme would be “Embrace Your Voice,” I realized that it matched up perfectly with an aspect of my campaign because empowering the voices of survivors and knowing how to use your voice to be heard and prompt change is extremely important.

With this being said, there are still 18 days left this month, which means that there’s still time to get involved! Below are some ways you can participate in SAAM:

• #30DaysofSAAM Instagram contest: Every day in April has a theme and you can spread awareness by posting a picture that relates the daily theme. You can follow @NSVRC on Instagram to see what the prompt is each day. If you’re chosen as a finalist, you could even win SAAM merch!

• Tweet or post messages on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #SAAM to spread the word!

• One of the biggest remaining events this month is on Wednesday, April 25th. Wear denim on Denim Day!

Across all of my social media platforms, I have seen so many people spread the word about SAAM and it’s been so inspiring. I encourage you to do the same because sexual violence is still a problem in our society, but one tweet or post could make a huge difference because your voice has power.