The Tell Your Story: Sexual Assault Awareness Project helped address, raise awareness, report and prevent sexual harassment faced by women. This project educated people about consent and provides resources and a safe space for survivors to come forward.
"We speak up."
- Student Reflection
Considering Issues Most Compelling to Their School Community
After consideration of issues that specifically impact them, their peers and their school community and sifting through school-based data, students were compelled to consider both the impact and their unique role to addressing sexual harassment and assault.
Focusing on Stories from their Community
Students prioritized the importance of reading through instances of sexual harassment and assault in their own community. They used this powerful experience as a way to launch their brainstorming and they considered various ideas through a number of ideating techniques.
Using Reflections from Peers to Catalyze Action
During the DO stage, students focused on raising awareness and education around sexual harassment and assault and also providing support for victims in their community. Students began by researching the issue – both locally and globally. They started by developing and refining a survey for their peers. Information from the survey sparked their action and allowed them to take steps that specifically aligned to the experience of their community. They began their work by calling senators and representatives to protest new regulations around reporting instances of sexual violence. They partnered with One Love to host a screening that then catalyzed a two-day class discussion. They also invited a guest speaker, planned and executed a lesson plan for their peers, and raised money for a large anti-sexual violence organization.
Sharing Broadly in Their School Community
Students were given the platform to share their work with the entire study body at an assembly. They are now working to share their lesson plan more broadly with other area high schools to widen the audience of their campaign.
