LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lakeport City Council this week continued its longstanding tradition of recognizing April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and honored one of the local agencies and its team of professionals who work to support victims.
Lake Family Resource Center, which runs the county’s 24-hour sexual assault crisis line and its domestic violence shelter, sent a team of staffers to accept the proclamation from Mayor Michael Froio.
The proclamation explained that in 2023, Lake County agencies responded to the needs of 390 sexual assault victims and their significant others and family members.
Based on the statistics provided in the proclamation, one in six boys and one in four girls will experience a sexual assault before the age of 18.
During the meeting, Lake Family Resource Center staff explained that the youngest sexual assault survivor they assisted this year was 3 years old, while the oldest was 72.
The document noted that, “no one person, organization, agency or community can eliminate sexual assault on their own and the partnership between public and private Lake County agencies is invaluable,” and emphasized that Lake Family Resource Center and the District Attorney’s office, Victim-Witness Division, as well as law enforcement agencies, hospitals and schools “have set an important example of how forging collaborative relationships improves the quality of service for those impacted by sexual violence.”
The proclamation urges “all local governments, schools, businesses and community members to participate in the sponsored events this month to increase awareness and public support for creating communities free from violence and exploitation,”
The group also will mark Denim Day on April 24.
Denim Day, which always takes place on the last Wednesday of April, was created to raise awareness of sexual violence and assault.
It responded directly to a case that began in Italy in 1992, when an 18-year-old girl was raped. Her rapist was convicted but later appealed, and the Italian Supreme Court overturned the conviction claiming that the young woman was wearing tight jeans and that they only could have been removed with her consent.
According to denimday.org, “This became known throughout Italy as the ‘jeans alibi.’”
The first protests began with women in the Italian Parliament and then spread around the world. Patti Occhiuzzo Giggans, executive director of Peace Over Violence, began the movement to have everyone wear jeans to protest “all of the myths about why women and girls are raped.”
For more information visit https://denimday.org/why-denim.
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