Perspectives on responses to sexual assault

Facilitator: What are some things we would ask ourselves when making suggestions [to a friend who has been sexually assaulted]? What would we need to think about before giving advice? Participant 1: Did you give…

The main thing in any type of sexual assault, […] especially if it’s a woman, oftentimes we blame ourselves. I’ve never had that happen to me, but talking to other people who’ve gone through these…

The best advice I can give anyone is to be a listener, but in a non-judgmental way, and just let them tell their truth and their story without pushing them to do something that they…

I would say, like, three major [suggestions], for anyone providing help in these situations are: (1) Check your privilege. Know what that looks like, know who you are, know your position. (2) If you’re not…

There are so many biases that come with different ethnicities, so it is important to listen with an open mind and to remove any biases before someone discloses. As we know, if you don’t feel…

Participant 1: For instance, “filing a report directly to the police” [as suggested to survivors in a 2019 SV/SA policy] – it’s little things like that, like, if we are speaking from the perspective of…

Participant 1: I also think they should have more people of colour available to help someone. A woman or guy of colour might not feel comfortable going to someone that wouldn’t understand them […]. So,…

I think this highlights the issue of feeling alone in these kinds of circumstances. I would say that as young Black leaders in the community, it is kind of on us to make sure that…

I think trust is a huge thing. I feel that in these situations, the onus is not on the victim, the onus is on the supporter to show the victim, like, “You can trust me.…

I hope everyone in this conversation is aware of the movie Birth of a Nation. If you’re not aware of it, you have to look that up. Essentially, it was a movie from the 1920s…