Community Corner

Sexual Assault Counselors Urge People to Talk About It

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Talk to your family and your friends about sexual assault and sexual harassment, leaders of area counseling agencies said Tuesday in Darien Town Hall at a news conference kicking off Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

"It's something that we want to have a conversation about in our families, with our friends, with people we really know," said Ivonne Zucco, executive director of the Center for Sexual Assault Crisis Counseling and Education. "That's the only way we're going to change things."

Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson said that with several children, including two daughters in college, "it's a topic of conversation often in our house," including what her sons and daughters can do "to keep themselves safe, to keep their friends safe."

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Zucco's organization is asking people to take a pledge that they will talk about sexual assault and harassment - partly by talking about it with friends and family. The pledge also includes a promise to treat people with respect, no to "tolerate rape jokes or bullying behavior from those around me," and instead, "interrupt them to explain how these behaviors are harmful and hurtful." (See the full language of the pledge in the document attached to this article.)

The problem isn't a small one, Zucco said. Her agency, which serves the area from Greenwich to Westport, Weston and Wilton, counsels 500 "primary and secondary victims (secondary victims are friends and family of a direct victim), including, she said, 80 children.

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"It's happening in our communities," Zucco said. "It is happening with people we know—our friends, our families, our co-workers, our children. [...] We change it by talking about it."

She cited statistics indicating sexual assault is widespread, and a news release distributed by her organization (attached to this article) stated that 19 percent of Connecticut residents had "experienced a sexual assault in their lifetime." The news release cited a study by Macro International Inc. done for Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services Inc. and the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

Sexual assault is an expensive problem not just for victims themselves, but for society as a whole, Zucco said. To deal with the trauma, victims may turn to drug addiction, alcohol, cutting themselves, eating disorders and other destructive behaviors, she said. Higher health-care costs, job instability and legal and judicial costs are also paid by victims and by society at large, she said.

Jessie Bekoe, victim advocate for the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District, said sexual assault victims often don't realize that they can speak with prosecutors with therapists and with Bekoe present to lend support, an experience that can make the courthouse experience less forbidding.

A fundraiser for the Center for Sexual Assault Crisis Counseling and Education (also known as "the Center") will honor the State's Attorney's Office for Stamford and Norwalk, "for their exceptional work serving victims of sexual assault," according to a publicity card for the event. The "Raise Your Glass, Raise Awareness" event, with a Chinese "Year of the Dragon" theme, will be held April 26 at 65 Bank Street in Downtown Stamford.


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