WRAP shares advice for survivors, supporters during Sexual Assault Awareness Month

JACKSON, Tenn. — Sexual assault can happen to anyone, anywhere. The month of April is dedicated to bringing awareness to sexual assault, harassment and abuse.

“Supporting survivors coming forward, getting the help, reaching out for services, whether it’s counseling or an exam or a reporting, and with us we don’t require them to do anything as far as reporting to the police or exams if that’s not what they want to do,” said Ashley Hopper, Regional Sexual Assault Specialist at WRAP.

When discussing sexual assault, it can look different in a variety of ways, including, rape, fondling, even comments people say, and anything that’s unwanted or makes you uncomfortable.

“It can look like several different things,” said Hopper. “It’s normally by someone that the survivor knows, it’s not normally as we see in movies like a stranger, it’s normally people they know.”

If you know a survivor of sexual assault, there are a few things you can do to support. The first step is believing what they tell you.

“Helping you reach out to those support systems if they need or want professional help,” Hopper said. “Remembering it’s their choice if they don’t want to report to law enforcement, they don’t want to get an exam, they don’t wanna go through that process because it is difficult, because they don’t have to.”

WRAP provides help to men, women, and members of the LGBTQ community in almost all West Tennessee counties.

“They would ask for your name, your number, your date of birth, and then they would get that to an advocate in your area, so whatever advocate that might be that works that area or that county, they’ll follow up with you, set something up,” said Hopper.

If you’re in Madison County, you can visit the Safe Hope Center for help, located in midtown Jackson at 512 Roland Avenue.

The crisis number for WRAP is 1-800-273-8712.

For more news in the Jackson and Madison County area, click here.