If you dine at Granite City Food & Brewery tomorrow, 10% of your total bill will be donated to providing services for survivors of sexual violence! A great opportunity to grab a bite to eat with friends and family while supporting services at CMSAC! We hope to see you there!
The staff at CMSAC hope you can join us for the first session of the Concerned Person’s Support Group, beginning at 5:00 pm tonight! Refreshments will be provided. Haven’t filled out an intake yet? No problem! Intakes will be available to fill out.
There is still time to bring awareness to sexual violence during the month of April! St. Cloud State University’s Women’s Center will be tabling in Atwood April 20-21 with packets of seeds for hope. You can plant these seeds in honor of a survivor, or in support of gender equity, nonviolence, and harmony.
If planting is not your thing, on April 21st, there will be an opportunity to honor survivors of sexual violence by placing a flag on the lawn of Atwood mall as part of a campaign to bring awareness to the high rates of sexual assault experienced on college campuses. #SAAM #April
Last week was National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. This annual event represents a time to recognize those who have been impacted by crime and to advocate for the needs and rights of every victim/survivor.
Every year in April, the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) helps lead communities throughout the country in their annual observances of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW), which was observed in 2016 on April 10–16. This year’s theme was—Serving Victims. Building Trust. Restoring Hope.— This year’s theme underscores the importance of early intervention and victim services in establishing trust with victims, which in turn begins to restore their hope for healing and recovery.
For a recap on the presenters, award recipients, and to view photos from this event, please click on the link here: http://ovc.ncjrs.gov/ncvrw/
Join us tomorrow from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm as one of our staff members speaks at the St. Cloud Technical and Community College about rape culture & the impact of pornography for Sexual Assault Awareness Month!
If you Dine at Granite City Food & Brewery on April 16, 23, and 30th, 10% of your total bill will be donated to providing services for survivors of sexual violence! Simply show a photo, email, or printed flyer of the Dine to Donates event pictured below. Photos of the flyer can be found on CMSAC’s Facebook page and/or Twitter account. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to grab a bite to eat with friends, family, or coworkers and support CMSAC! We hope to see you there!
The staff at CMSAC would like to thank that made our 1st Annual Healing Garden event a success! We would also like to thank the following sponsors/donors of the event: Anna Marie’s Alliance, Antons, Blue Heron, Michael’s Restaurant, Garden Wok, China Star, Chipotle, St. Cloud Floral, Bernicks Pepsi, Applebee’s, Bo-Diddley’s, Mel-Strack Whitney Senior Center, and all of our anonymous donors! Thank you! Below are some photos from our event! For more photos from the Healing Garden event, go to CMSAC’s Facebook page.
CMSAC still has some teal ribbons and glass bottles left that are ready to be decorated for The Healing Garden event on Thursday! If you would like to decorate a bottle or ribbon for this event, call (320) 251-4357 to schedule some time to come in and decorate one!
Interesting in sponsoring a glass bottle with a monetary donation? If your business would like to sponsor a bottle, you can do so by contacting CMSAC at 320-251-4357 and making a donation to our agency. We can then give you a bottle to decorate with your logo and other materials of your choosing or CMSAC can decorate a bottle on your business’s behalf (if you choose to have CMSAC decorate a bottle for you, send us your logo and/or anything else you’d like attached to the bottle). Bottles must be completed and turned into our office by April 6th so that they can be displayed starting April 7th , the day of the Healing Garden event. The bottles will be displayed on our bottle tree in our garden for the entire month of April.
April is now recognized nationally as Sexual Assault Awareness month. Read below for President Obama’s proclamation:
NATIONAL SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS AND PREVENTION MONTH, 2016
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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
At our country’s core is a basic belief in the inherent dignity of every person. Too many women and men of all ages suffer the outrage that is sexual assault, and too often, this crime is not condemned as loudly as it should be. Together, we must stand up and speak out to change the culture that questions the actions of victims, rather than those of their attackers. As their relatives, friends, neighbors, and fellow Americans, it’s on us to support victims and survivors by providing them with the care they need, bringing perpetrators to justice, and ensuring our institutions are held responsible and do not look the other way. This month, we reaffirm our commitment to shift the attitudes that allow sexual assault to go unanswered and unpunished, and we redouble our efforts to prevent this human rights violation from happening in the first place.
Preventing sexual assault begins with everyone getting involved in promoting healthy relationships and encouraging respect for the equality of others. For decades, Vice President Joe Biden has brought unmatched passion to this cause, working to pass the Violence Against Women Act in the Senate more than two decades ago, and continuing to fight today to transform the way we think and talk about sexual assault. In 2014, we launched the “It’s On Us” campaign — an initiative that has worked with over 300 college campuses and engaged hundreds of thousands of people around our country who have taken a pledge to stand up and speak out to express moral outrage for this intolerable crime. We launched the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault that year as well, which continues to offer recommendations for how we can all contribute to a society that adequately prevents and responds to sexual assault.
My Administration is taking action to eliminate sexual assault in every corner of our country. This year, we announced new grants available for the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, a nationwide, community-based effort to end the backlog of untested rape kits — instrumental tools used to collect evidence, prosecute perpetrators, and bring closure to victims in the aftermath of an assault. These funds are supporting efforts to ensure victims are notified of the testing, connected to support services, and given the option of participating in the criminal justice process. Additionally, we have offered new tools and resources to help States and communities take advantage of the best available measures to prevent sexual violence. The Department of Justice issued new guidance for law enforcement on identifying and preventing gender bias in response to sexual assault and domestic violence. And I have directed military leadership to prioritize this issue and equip our men and women in uniform with the knowledge and tools necessary to combat sexual violence. From our military to our schools, and in law enforcement agencies in communities across America, we will keep working to address sexual violence and root it out wherever it exists.
Anyone can be a leader in the fight to prevent and end sexual assault. As employers, educators, parents, and friends, all Americans have an obligation to uphold the basic principle that every individual should be free from violence and fear. During National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, we recommit to embracing each of our individual responsibilities to keep our communities safe from this crime and to stand with survivors and victims of sexual assault.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2016 as National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. I urge all Americans to support survivors of sexual assault and work together to prevent these crimes in their communities.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand sixteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fortieth.
Direct donations ensure all of your donation goes directly to helping CMSAC provide much needed services to survivors of sexual violence.
*To make a direct donation please call 320-251-4357 and ask how you can contribute.*
Central MN Sexual Assault Center 