04/16/2026
Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) 2026 is “25 Years Stronger: Looking Back, Moving Forward.”
What is SAAM (Sexual Assault Awareness Month)
History of Sexual Assault Awareness Month:
"The roots of SAAM stretch back decades before its formal establishment. The first r**e crisis centre in the United States opened in San Francisco in 1971, marking one of the earliest organised community responses to sexual violence. Seven years later, San Francisco also hosted the first American Take Back the Night march, a movement that spread rapidly across university campuses and cities throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
These grassroots efforts built momentum for legislative action. The passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in 1994 was a watershed moment, establishing federal funding for the investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women and creating support programs for survivors. VAWA demonstrated that sexual violence prevention required a coordinated national effort.
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center was founded in 2000 by the Pennsylvania Coalition Against R**e, with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2001, the NSVRC coordinated the first official Sexual Assault Awareness Month campaign, unifying what had previously been a patchwork of local and regional events, marches, and awareness weeks held during April. Each year since, the NSVRC has selected a national theme and produced campaign materials to help organizations participate.
Over the following decades, SAAM grew in visibility and impact. The emergence of the movement in 2017 – though not directly tied to SAAM – brought unprecedented public attention to the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault, amplifying the campaign’s message. Today, SAAM engages millions of people across social media, workplace training programs, campus events, and community actions each April."
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