For many of the attendees of Safe Space's recent Speak-Out, sexual assault is not something they simply read about in the news?it is a personal experience with which they continue to cope. Despite pouring rain, which forced event organizers to cancel the opening procession of sexual assault survivors and their supporters from the gazebo in Brunswick to Ladd House, every seat at the Speak-Out was filled.
Safe Space sponsored its second-ever Speak-Out on Tuesday as part of its efforts for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Safe Space is a student organization that works to end silence surrounding sexual assault.
Though the approximately 75 attendees were predominantly students, school administrators and local residents were also present.
With tissue boxes placed on the armrests of couches forming a semi-circle around a stage area, and promises of anonymity and a safe space to share thoughts and experiences, the evening promised to be an emotional experience, and it delivered.
No order of speakers was created and no barriers were set as to when, or for how long, people could speak. After an introduction to the Speak-Out program, the floor was opened to people to volunteer their stories. After a minute or two of silence, the first story of sexual assault was shared.
By the end of the nearly three hour-long Speak-Out, 25 attendees had come to the stage and discussed their own or their friends' experiences of sexual assault.
Speakers told personal stories of rape and other forms of sexual assault, many of which occurred on campus. While many others were sexually assaulted off-campus, they expressed that they were still coping with these traumatic events in their lives.
Speak-Out attendee Michael Wood '06 reflected on the event.
"I was shocked to hear people I knew well telling stories when before I had no idea about it. To see people at Bowdoin doing that was really powerful," he said.
While Wood acknowledged that he was aware of the existence of sexual assault incidences on the Bowdoin campus, "to hear the specifics was the next step in my understanding of the level to which it happens."
For Bowdoin Women's Association (BWA) Co-Chair Alison Driver '08, the importance of the Speak-Out lay is the way it offers survivors a feeling of community.
"It's an expression of community and support, a community for people to seek support and for people to provide it," she said.
A survivor who wished to remain unnamed also commented on the event.
"It's so awful to feel like you can't break the silence and to be afraid of how other people will react to you if you tell them," she said. "Being there in that room, I realized that I had found the people who would support me."
The first Safe Space Speak-Out at Bowdoin was organized last year by Safe Space member Lindsay Buntman '06. Before transferring to Bowdoin, Buntman had already been involved in the Safe Space program at The George Washington University and had previously attended a speak-out on the Colgate University campus. When she came to Bowdoin, she was surprised that Bowdoin did not sponsor its own Speak-Out.
This year's Speak-Out included both more attendees and more speakers. These numbers have coincided with a growing Safe Space membership.
"People are much more aware of Safe Space as a resource," said Safe Space member Nicole Hart '06 when asked about the reason for group's growing membership.
Safe Space members are trained by advocates for Sexual Assault Support Services of Mid-Coast Maine (SASSMM), an organization that has also trained some Safe Space members to become peer educators. Katrina Ringrose of SASSMM helped organize Tuesday's event by bringing together Brunswick community members and people from the Independence Association, an organization that works to help the mentally disabled.
To Buntman, the most important element of the program is that it starts the healing process for those who were sexually assaulted.
The Speak-Out is one of many programs sponsored by Safe Space for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Last Friday, Safe Space sponsored a coffeehouse at Chase Barn to raise sexual assault awareness. Also, on display in Smith Union for the next two weeks is a quilt for sexual assault awareness, to which many members of the Bowdoin community contributed squares.
"We put [the quilt] up so that members of the Bowdoin community and visitors can understand how big of an issue sexual assault is on the Bowdoin campus and the importance of support for survivors," Safe Space member Nicole Willey '08 said. "It also serves as an opportunity for those who cannot attend the Speak-Out to get an idea of the feelings of survivors, friends of survivors, and supporters."
On Monday, Jackson Katz, co-founder of the Mentors in Violence Prevention program, is slated to speak at Bowdoin. Also in the works is a Safe Space support group for survivors and friends of survivors, which is planned to start this semester or early next semester. It will most likely to be led by an advocate from SASSMM, according to Hart.
"The support group is going to be a huge addition to Safe Space for a lot of survivors dealing with it on an everyday basis," said Safe Space member Emily Coffin '08.
"That allotted time to talk about those issues will be tremendously important," she said.
Buntman agreed that the campus needs to continue its effort to raise consciousness about the fact that sexual assault happens at Bowdoin.
"We won't allow people to deny that it happens," she said.