SEXUAL ABUSE AWARENESS MONTH

By Julie Hart

It’s something… being the right-hand of a woman on a mission. A woman who shares the same passions:

To end sexual assault, childhood sexual abuse, and incest by speaking openly about it, by collaborating with other warriors, by showing up at the page even when it breaks our hearts…

Yes, she’s something else, folks!

We got on the phone last week and one of the first things she said was, “Guess what I did last week!”

And then she proceeded to tell me about her time spent with other women who open their hearts and tell their stories again and again and again, that not one more child will have to speak their story because they never had to live it... because she, Claire O’Leary, spoke and Senator Joan Lovely, Massachusetts, listened. All those gathered at the State House in Boston shared and listened, learned and grew, then went back to their home states reinvigorated because that’s how it goes when a people with a common mission and vision gather and talk about their common purpose.

This month, Sexual Assault Awareness Month is our common purpose.

By the late 1990s, many advocates began coordinating activities and events throughout the month of April, advancing the idea of a nationally recognized month for sexual violence awareness and prevention activities. Sexual Assault Awareness Month, or SAAM, was first observed nationally in April 2001.

In the last 22 years we have seen change and growth and there is still much much much work to be done.

Senator Joan B. Lovely, MA has proposed legislation that will help eradicate childhood sexual abuse and ensure that victims have much more power in the process afterwards. It will make Massachusetts the first state in the country to have such comprehensive legislation. (Perhaps Colorado might follow suit?)

And as Claire finished telling me about her time in Boston: gathering new branches for the nest that had spent the winter in a dark storage facility, driving it across the bridge, and riding in a convertible on the way back (one of her most favorite things to do, our

Claire), she told me this, the most poignant thing she said about the weekend:

“I felt seen. I felt heard. I felt worthy.

She was witnessed by a people who have either gone through the pain and shame and unspeakableness of sexual abuse or have capacity to be allies for those of us who have.

She felt witnessed. She felt powerful. She felt enlivened to get this magazine out with just 10 days lead time.

That’s how important this movement is to her... to both of us.

We will speak out loud, loudly and proudly, until:

Not One More Child...

...and until the men and women who have already lived this trauma feel safe to share, to dance, to write, to art, to free themselves from old narratives of shame and unworthiness and once and for all, finally break those chains.

Sometimes we must go away to plug back into... renewed, regenerated, restored... our purpose, our life’s work, our calling.

Claire O'leary at the Cabot Theater

Carla Beatrice

Claire O'Leary and Joanne Kirves

Jen Young

About The Author

For the last two decades, Julie has been a preschool special educator and teacher, a domestic violence/sexual abuse counselor, a writer, public speaker, and advocate and now, a dancer.

She does all the things still (except not officially teach nor counsel) for mental health awareness, survivors of childhood trauma (CPTSD), incest awareness, sensory processing disorder, ADHD, and those on all spectrums.

Most of all Julie is Mommy to Max (she is also right hand counsel extraordinaire). You can reach Julie on facebook