From Where We Are

USC hosts resources fair for Sexual Assault Awareness Month

The SAAM Support and Resource fair featured trauma-informed yoga sessions, an emotional containment art workshop and local sexual and domestic violence organizations

Photo of a flyer that is promoting the event highlighting "Resilience, Hope and Healing" through open and honest conversations.

USC Student Health promotes conversations of Sexual Assault Awareness today at The Great Big Lawn on campus. (Photo courtesy of USC Student Health)

By Grace Gerstner and Irene Kim

April is sexual assault awareness month. And today, USC hosted a resources and support fair at the Village lawn. Irene Kim has more on what the fair had to offer.

With the end of sexual assault awareness month coming up, USC hosted the annual Support and Resource Fair on campus. The events consists of trauma-informed yoga sessions, conversations with local sexual and domestic violence organizations, and an emotional containment workshops.

The Student Assembly for Gender Empowerment, or SAGE, and the Survivor Support Community are amongst the two student-run organizations on campus that offer direct support and resources. Ultimately, both groups encourage students to attend the events and feel comfortable enough to talk to others about this issue. Christine Almadjian, the advocacy director of the Survivor Support Community, hopes students find meaningful conversations and comfort during each event.

ALMADJIAN: we really value creating a space for survivors and allies just to speak about their experiences, to find comfort in having group efforts to find a place that they can feel comfortable.

Logan Terry is the co-director of SAGE. He and others members of SAGE present at the fair advocated for the importance of hosting this fair openly and welcoming all students.

TERRY: It’s a spotlight for victims of sexual assault and also about how we as students, but also like the greater culture that we’re all part of, can work to support survivors and alleviate causes of sexual assault.

Organizations from all around Los Angeles rallied alongside each campus organization to show their support for the Trojan Family. Angel Gray, a representative of the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles, emphasizes how her organization aligns strongly with the campus event.

GRAY: Our mission and our goals are eliminating racism and empowering women, and we do that through a multitude of different ways, specifically for our department, the sexual assault crisis services. We offer a ton of services, counseling for survivors and loved ones of survivors, as well as support groups... we work to raise awareness about all the different issues within the sexual assault field during this time of but really all year round.

To officially end sexual assault awareness month, the USC Male Engagement program in Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Services and USC Health will host a conversation about Sex, Boundaries and Dating this Thursday at the Ronald Tutor Campus Center from 6:00 P.M. to 7:30 P.M.

For Annenberg Media, I’m Irene Kim.