ANNUAL EVENTS

OCTOBER

Relationship Violence Awareness Month

Relationship Violence Awareness Month (also known as Domestic Violence Awareness Month) is a month that brings education and and awareness to the prevalence of relationship violence in our communities.

During this month, information is shared about survivors experiences with relationship violence, tactics used by abusers to maintain power and control, education around how we, individually and as a society, can support survivors, and conversations are had on how to identify healthy vs. unhealthy vs. abusive relationships.

This awareness month was first observed in October of 1981 by survivor advocates who wanted to use this month to bring awareness to the work they were doing to support survivors and end relationship violence.

Red Flag Campaign

The Red Flag Campaign was created by and for college campuses with the guidance of the Virginia Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Alliance. This is a national campaign with the purpose of raising awareness around “red flags” in unhealthy and abusive relationships.

Chalking for Survivors

The Chalking for Survivors event for Relationship Violence Awareness Month was first held on October 9th, 2023! The purpose of this event is to remind survivors on Auraria Campus they are believed and supported. During this event, participants chalk encouraging words for survivors of relationship violence, chalk statistics about relationship violence, and remind Auraria campus that the PCA is a resource for them 24/7.

JANUARY

Stalking Awareness Month

Stalking Awareness Month is a month that brings education and and awareness to the prevalence of stalking in our communities.

During this month, information is shared about survivors experiences with stalking, education about how stalking intersects with other forms of interpersonal violence, tactics used by stalkers to maintain power and control over the people they stalk, and conversations are held around how our society romanticizes stalking behavior and how we can work toward ending stalking.

This month was first observed in January of 2004 thanks to the advocacy work of the National Center for Victims of Crime.

Creepy or Cute? Campaign

Due to the Auraria Campus’s winter break being during Stalking Awareness Month, the PCA does an annual “Creepy or Cute?” Campaign on our Instagram Story. This is an interactive game where participants are provided with a potential stalking scenario and they vote on whether they perceive the scenario to be creepy (stalking behavior) or cute (not stalking behavior).

Follow us on our instagram @phoenixcenter to stay up-to-date about this campaign!

APRIL

Sexual Assault Awareness Month 

Sexual Assault Awareness Month (also known as SAAM) is a month that brings education and and awareness to the prevalence of sexual violence in our communities.

During this month, information is shared about survivors experiences with sexual violence, education around how to support survivors of sexual violence, and conversations are held around how consent and comprehensive sexual health education can lead us to a society where sexual violence is no longer present.

This month was first observed on a national level in the United States in 2001. Yet, advocates had been doing this awareness and intervention work for decades.

Clothesline Project

The Clothesline Project started in 1990 in Hyannis, Massachusetts when members of the Cape Cod's Women's Defense agenda were in the process of discussing the parallels between the lethality of the Vietnam War and that of domestic violence; 58,000 soldiers were killed in the Vietnam War and 51,000 women were killed in the US that year as a result of domestic violence.  Desiring to raise awareness of this staggering parallel and the realities survivors face daily, the members erected the first Clothesline Project consisting of 31 shirts.

In the last 20 years, the project has grown to a worldwide movement representing 6 types of violence committed against persons of all gender identities and expressions, racial identities, and sexual orientation.

Consent Turns Me On (CTMO) Carnival

The CTMO Carnival was inspired by the Women and Gender Advocacy Center at Colorado State University: Fort Collins.

The purpose of this event is to create a fun, safe space for folks to have fruitful conversations about consent. The carnival does this by having carnival-themed games for participants to play that help them gain a better understanding of and practice asking for consent. Additional games at the carnival include games about safer sex practices, identity, and sex positivity.

This event was first held on Auraria Campus in April 2023 and was one of the PCA’s most successful events in its recent history. Due to this success and the feedback from students, faculty, and staff members who shared how fun and informative this event was, this event will be a signature PCA event moving forward!

Denim Day

Since 2001, Peace Over Violence has run the Denim Day in USA campaign on the last Wednesday in April in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (https://www.peaceoverviolence.org/denim-day). The campaign was originally triggered by a ruling by the Italian Supreme Court where a rape conviction was overturned because the justices felt that since the victim was wearing tight jeans she must have helped her rapist remove her jeans, thereby implying consent. The following day, the women in the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the victim.

Since then, wearing jeans on Denim Day has become a symbol of protest against erroneous and destructive attitudes about sexual assault. In this rape prevention education campaign, The Phoenix Center at Auraria (PCA) and campus partners ask faculty, staff, and students to make a social statement with their fashion by wearing jeans on this day as a visible means of protest against the misconceptions that surround sexual assault.