CARE Week seeks to unify, enlighten

Though issues like rape, sexual assault, and violence against women are difficult to stomach, the 2008 CARE Week campaign is confronting them head-on with 13 events, demonstrations, speeches, and panels to take place in the coming week. CARE Week will take place from March 27 to April 4.

The acronym CARE stands for Concerned About Rape Education. Though the events are coordinated by the Women's Resource Center (WRC), CARE Week seeks to act as a uniting force.

"The goal is to have an initiative that brings together groups on campus - from academic groups to social groups - to create awareness, spread education about the issues of sexual assault, rape, and violence against women, recognize the strength of survivors, and acknowledge that these issues exist and as a community, we need to stand up together," said Karlyn Bolduc, a member of the WRC and LSOE '08.

The WRC kicked off CARE Week yesterday afternoon with the Help Create the Clothesline Project, which gave students the chance to create their own T-shirts expressing their personal reactions to issues of sexual assault or rape.

CARE Week events continue today with the "How to Help a Friend" workshop, sponsored by the WRC and the Boston College Sexual Assault Network (SANet) at noon. At 7 p.m., the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) will bring author, professor, and sociologist Dr. Andrea Parrot to speak in a lecture titled "Acquaintance Rape: the Hidden Crime on College Campuses." Parrot is slated to address issues such as human sexuality, women's health, and violence against women.

Other planned CARE Week events include the SIESTA fashion show, which highlights the trials and tribulations that women of color endure as survivors of sexual assault, a demonstration of the Rape Aggression Defense program taught by BC Police Officers to teach women realistic self-defense strategies, and Amnesty International's "Grains of Sand: Afghani Women," which will focus on the lives and struggles of Afghani women.

Though events differ from year to year, CARE Week has seen favorable results in the past.

"CARE Week has been a great success over the years, and we're hoping that it will be just as much a success as in the past. It's a very powerful week and can ignite feelings in people they might not have dealt with," Bolduc said. "It ignites this conversation and that's a powerful thing."

CARE Week 2008, however, boasts two significant changes from last year's event.

"We've expanded in a couple of ways," Bolduc said. "This year, we've had 'instant bulletin boards' available for every Resident Assistant on campus." This initiative, she said, provides RAs with information on sexual assault and rape that relate to their residents.

Bolduc also detailed changes to the SIESTA Fashion show, which was undertaken for the first time last year.

"The SIESTA Fashion show is being expanded with a theatrical, dramatic addition. There are going to be excerpts from a poem, "For colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow isn't enough," by Ntozake Shange, which is a big addition that will add interesting elements to the event," Bolduc said.

This year, CARE Week events will be capped by an experience referred to as "Take Back The Night." Scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the O'Neill Plaza and sponsored by the WRC, the Lynch School of Education, and the Alcohol and Drug Education program, Take Back the Night calls for students to unite in support of survivors of sexual assault. These survivors will share their stories publicly. Attendees can then attend an optional discussion session in the WRC.

Also included in CARE Week is the White Ribbon Campaign, which supplies white ribbons to men who sign a pledge to never commit violence against women. Ribbons will be available in Corcoran Commons and McElroy during the week.

Students can also support the campaign by inquiring at the WRC, located at McElroy 141, regarding opportunities to assist over the course of the week, or by attending the events being held out of concern for rape education. The goal of the event's coordinators, after all, is to unite the students in awareness.

"We want to spread awareness to all aspects of the community. The issues presented through CARE Week should start conversations about experiences, feelings, thoughts, or reactions to sexual assault and rape," Bolduc said.