Carleton’s Equity Services hosted its fifth annual Sexual Assault Awareness Week from Feb. 23-27, featuring a series of events to keep students informed about consent, healthy relationships, and services available on campus for sexual assault survivors.
The week kicked off with an information fair in the University Centre atrium, where a range of on- and off-campus groups ran booths to educate students.
“We do a variety of events every year,” said Carrolyn Johnston, the co-ordinator of Sexual Assault Services on campus. “We change the speakers to cover a diverse range of topics.”
The week is separate from the Carleton University Students’ Association’s Sexual Assault Awareness Week and Rideau River Residence Association’s Sex Week.
“The different weeks may cover different aspects of sexual violence,” she said. “They are all complementary and all ensure that students are informed about the resources on campus.”
The Feb. 24 event was a lunchtime talk with Jennifer Bigelow, a former sex worker and a prominent advocate for sex workers’ rights, who spoke about the realities of being a street-based sex worker under criminalized prostitution laws.
Beau Welter, a fourth-year social work student who works for Equity Services, said Bigelow gives honest and personal talks that are important for students to hear.
“She has the kind of experience that we rarely hear about on a university campus and I think it is very important when studying social issues such as poverty, addiction, and sexual assault,” Welter said.
Statistics state one in four women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime, according to Welter, and the rate for female university students is higher.
“This week is clearly important,” Welter said. “We need to be doing more to make it a concern not only for those who have been assaulted, but for our campus community as a whole.”
Hannah Dickson, a first-year art history student who volunteered for the week’s events, said the week could have been improved if more students attended the events, but its initiatives remain important.
Other events in the week include a presentation from Montreal Gazette reporter Sue Montgomery, the woman who started the Twitter campaign #beenrapedneverreported.
“The events are open to everyone,” Johnston said, and added “no one is ever asked to share personal information at an event.”
There are also trained support workers on site at all events, she said, in case “someone finds a presentation or discussion difficult or triggering.”
