April is National Sexual Abuse Awareness Month.

Marcy Webb is the Sexual Assault Services Coordinator for Assault Care Center Extending Shelter and Support (ACCESS) for Greene County.  She says they are conducting a “What I Was Wearing” campaign to bring awareness to the topic in the County.

Several mannequins are on display around the County with clothing and poems by sexual assault survivors.  Webb states that their goal of the campaign is to clear up a myth that sexual abuse happens because of what the victim is wearing.

“And we’re really trying to re-frame the question to be, ‘Why did the perpetrator choose to harm this crime victim?” And so, the ‘What I Was Wearing’ campaign is just looking at that specific issue of dress and trying to showcase that it really doesn’t matter what somebody is wearing, nobody deserves to be assaulted or asked to be raped.”

The displays are at the Jefferson Public Library and the H.F. & Maude E. Marchant Memorial Library in Scranton for the rest of April and at the Greene County Community Center until April 24th.

Webb points out that sexual abuse happens everywhere, even in small town Iowa.  One in four girls and one in six boys will experience sexual assault before the age of 18.  One in five women and one in 33 men will be raped in their lives.

ACCESS offers several services for sexual assault situations.  Survivors or family and friends can get resources for help with a confidential crime advocate through their hotline at 515-29-ALERT.  They also offer a court advocate, if a victim needs someone to help them through their sexual abuse court case.