April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, so Healing Private Wounds in Cadillac led a walk downtown on Saturday, showing support for sexual assault survivors.
“We wanted to come together as a community and show our support and spread awareness that this happens every single day within our community, within our state, within the nation,” said Jessica Bruman, Social Work Intern for Healing Private Wounds.
Every 68 seconds, one American is sexually assaulted.
According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, only 25 out of every 1,000 abusers end up in prison.
“People are more comfortable talking about their anxiety, their depression, PTSD and other mental health issues, but sexual abuse and sexual assault is still something that people, you know, aren’t super comfortable talking about,” said Bruman.
Healing Private Wounds Founder Shirley Petersen says she wants to expand their outreach to more areas in Northern Michigan.
“We had people from Marian, we had people from Idlewild, we had people from all over [walking] and I think that’s what people need to know, this is not just for Cadillac, we’re here to serve the people in all the surrounding areas,” said Petersen.
They say sexual assault is something that is not discussed enough and should be talked about more openly and more often.
“It’s something that happens every day to children, to teenagers, to adults, males, females, so it’s definitely something we need to be talking about and we need to spread awareness that more people need to talk about it,” said Bruman.
If you are seeking help with sexual abuse or assault, you can contact or.
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