Guest speaker Delaney Ashmore at the Survivors Speak event.
On Tuesday, April 14, the Campus Advocacy, Prevention, and Education Project (CAPE) collaborated with Phi Sigma Tau sorority to host Survivors Speak. This event was held that evening in Lakeside and featured an opening story from Delaney Ashmore, a survivor and tattoo artist from Lincoln. She shared her story of dealing with sexual assault, how it affected her and her journey of healing. This story dove deep into the topic of not knowing what happened to her was sexual assault until later. This is something that some survivors at the event related to, as they also didn’t know that they experienced a form of sexual assault until after it was already over.
What followed were various stories of known survivors from around the world, and their stories, which were given by CAPE Peer Educators. After this, due to time running low, instead of an open mic for others to share stories, a group-wide discussion about what students had learned from the event occurred. Students shared things that they learned, related to, and many students spoke about Doane’s own culture revolving around sexual assault and what they as a community can do better for survivors.
Jaden Hilkemann, Doane’s CAPE Project coordinator, was asked about the process behind planning this new event. “What inspired me is to hear somebody from the outside community that Doane folks might not be familiar with and hear what their survival story was like, what they experienced, the hardships, what helped them overcome the challenges and to just bring a different perspective from outside of Doane.” Hilkemann also believes that preventing sexual assault and dating violence starts with hearing survivors tell their stories so others can know the warning signs to look out for and better understand what survivors go through.
“A lot goes into it,” Hilkemann said when asked about what goes into planning events such as these. “We know in April that we’ve got a lot to work with, specifically because it’s sexual assault awareness month. So I work with my peer educators, I work with my lead peer educator, Addison Rosno. We came up with an idea because we were inspired by the Chi Delt’s Open Mic Night. There’s a lot that goes into it, but we have a lot of hands on deck, so that makes it a lot easier.”
When asked what Doane can do better to support survivors, Hilkemann expressed that the way the campus speaks about CAPE is something that can be improved, and even if it’s annoying to get training in, it’s an important thing all of campus should know. Embedding it into campus culture is something that could help Doane students better understand and support survivors of sexual assault and dating violence. She also thinks going against the grain of victim blaming, asking important questions and believing survivors right away can also make a huge impact.
Luckily, there are numerous events held on campus where people can show their support for sexual assault awareness, with Survivors Speak being a new one. Some events have been held on campus for years.
A few days ago, on Sunday, Chi Delta sorority collaborated with the CAPE Project, Hope Crisis Center, and Gamma Phi Iota sorority on the 11th annual Step$4Them event. This event is held in honor of sexual assault survivors and raises money for Hope Crisis Center. Attendees can choose to run a 5k or to walk a mile to show their support.
This year’s event had a record-breaking attendance with over 100 attendees who came out to support the cause, and over $400 was raised for Hope Crisis Center. These events and so much more are what help Doane and its campus stay aware and supportive during this Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
