Together We Act, United We Change
Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2025
The theme "Together We Act, United We Change" embodies the power of collective action in addressing and preventing sexual abuse, assault, and harassment. It emphasizes that when we unite, we significantly increase our ability to make meaningful, positive changes. This campaign focuses on deepening public understanding of sexual violence, uplifting underserved and underrepresented voices, and empowering communities to collaborate and promote health equity.
Together, we can raise awareness on community issues to increase the community’s understanding on specific topics. Someone can raise awareness of sexual abuse, assault, and harassment for SAAM by:
- Attending Events: Attend events like fun runs and walks, marches, workshops, or fundraisers to demonstrate solidarity. Find your local sexual assault center to explore upcoming SAAM events.
- Contacting Representatives: Reach out to local and national representatives to advocate for policies that address sexual violence.
- Volunteering Time: Volunteer at events, help with community fundraisers, or provide direct support to survivors.
- Using Social Media: Share stories, quotes, and resources about preventing sexual abuse, assault, and harassment.
- Seeking Diverse Perspectives: Explore content created by people from different backgrounds to better understand how sexual violence affects diverse groups of people.
We welcome community members to take this quiz to learn how your style of participation can help raise awareness on community issues like sexual violence. This quiz is free and does not collect any personal information.
How can you raise awareness?
Como puede generar conciencia en la comunidad?
Together, we act with purpose! United, we have the power to change the world for the better and create a safer, more inclusive world for future generations. Learn more about SAAM and access additional digital resources with NSVRC’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month page.
How did Sexual Assault Awareness Month get started?
One night. One protest.
One group of women gathered on a London, England street in 1975 to take a stand — the first official “Take Back the Night” — against the sexual violence they often encountered when the sun set.
The annual “Take Back the Night” marches quickly gathered international support, spreading to the United States. In 1978, the first Take Back the Night events in the U.S. were held in San Francisco and New York City. Over time, sexual assault awareness activities expanded to include the issue of sexual violence against men and men’s participation in ending sexual violence.
In the early 1980s, the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NCASA) encouraged each state to organize sexual violence awareness activities during the Sexual Assault Awareness Week. By the 1990s the week turned into a month-April. The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center celebrated the first nationally observed sexual violence awareness month in April 2001.
Since that time, the Sexual Assault Awareness Month campaign has targeted a number of issues surrounding sexual violence such as sexual assault on campus, healthy sexuality, sexual harassment at work, preventing violence in schools and speaking out about rape in order to raise awareness and educate individuals on how to prevent sexual violence in our communities.
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center and the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape continue to encourage individuals, organizations, companies, schools, elected officials and every member of our communities to make SAAM a part of their activities in April each year.