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Governor Granholm has proclaimed
April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month in the state of Michigan. Sexual
Assault service providers throughout the state will be hosting prevention
and awareness oriented events as well as recognizing victims who have
survived sexual violence and remembering those who did not.
This year the National
Sexual Violence Resource Center has identified April 20th as "A
Day to End Sexual Violence." As part of the nationwide effort to
raise awareness, prevention and treatment programs all over the country
are encouraged to plan an event that day. To locate an agency in your
area, click
here.
Raising awareness about sexual violence requires people
with strong commitments working in the field and well-educated media representatives
who understand the issues. To help educate reporters and editors the Michigan
Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence this month is expecting
to distribute "Media Reporting on Sexual Assault: A Guide for Journalists"
to all Michigan Press Association members. The coalition also plans to
distribute "Working with the Media: A Toolkit for Service Providers"
to all domestic and sexual violence service provider agencies. Several
MDVPTB staff participated in the workgroup that developed these publications.
MDVPTB's
work on that project is just one example of its long experience focusing
on issues of sexual violence. The Board has been funding quarterly trainings
for new domestic and sexual violence service providers since 1997. It
funded a benchbook
on sexual assault published by the Michigan Judicial Institute in 2002;
and MDVPTB provides expert consultation and training on sexual assault
issues to many other statewide agencies and projects as well as ongoing
funding to 29 sexual assault agencies throughout the state.
MDVPTB staff sit on the National Sexual Assault Planning
Committee, a group organizing a by-invitation-only national forum sponsored
by the Department of Justice's
Office on Violence
Against Women. Staff also sit on the National Planning Committee in
recognition of the 10th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act,
in which sexual assault, as domestic violence and stalking, is listed
as a prominent type of violence against women.
For more information about Sexual Assault Awareness Month
or the issue of sexual assault in general, check out the Michigan
Resource Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence.
Please join us as we encourage Michigan communities to
take action to end sexual violence.
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