This April, the national Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) theme, as presented by the National Sexual Violence Resource Centre, will focus on campus sexual violence prevention. The goal of SAAM 2015 is to support campuses in creating a culture of prevention and effective, trauma-informed response. It’s time to act to create learning environments where all are engaged in prevention. Everyone has a role to play in creating safer campuses.

This year for SAAM, Avalon is pleased to launch two brand new campaigns addressing issues of entitlement and sexualized violence.

Avalon has been working with a development team to create a database that tracks the use of misogynist language on social media. The findings are presented on a webpage that tracks and displays the numbers based on day, geographical location, and context. This campaign is called “Post Sexism.”

Avalon has contracted local artist and filmmaker Krista Davis to create a series of 6 posters and 4 short stop-motion animation videos focusing on entitlement and sexualized violence. The impetus for this campaign comes from our work with youth and young adults and from community consultations. Below is an example of her work for our campaign, “I Don’t Owe You”:

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As the focus of SAAM this year is on campus sexual violence prevention, Avalon staff will be promoting these campaigns on a local feminist speaking tour targeting schools, colleges, and universities with the help and coordination of key individuals at each campus. The feminist speaking tour will be starting on April 28th 2015 and ending May 20th 2015. Please email avaloneducation@avaloncentre.ca if you are interested in hosting on your campus.