Sunday, April 7, 2013

April Is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Many victims of sexual assault live with what happened to them in silence and shame. 

The executive director of the Fredericton Sexual Assault Crisis Centre Lorraine Whalley tells CHSJ News that less than 10% of sexual assaults are reported to police.

This April is the third annual sexual assault awareness month in the province. The theme of this year's campaign is engaging youth in conversations of sexual violence. Whalley tells us they chose to zero-in on young people to try and clear up any misconceptions about what consent is amongst youth. She says the approach they're taking is that yes means yes, as opposed to no means no.

New Brunswick Has Lowest Levels of Adult Literacy in Canada

With our province's staggering rates of functional illiteracy, you'd think more people would be jumping on the free programs available to help people upgrade their reading skills, but Deanna Allen of Laubach Literacy tells CHSJ News their literacy programs are only reaching a handful of the people that need them.

Allen says adults who can't read well often avoid situations where they'll need to read, and often develop some creative strategies to cope with their sub-par literacy skills. But she says they'd like to see the number of people enrolled in their programs double or triple. She tells CHSJ News 60% of adults in New Brunswick are functionally illiterate, compared to 40% for Canada as a whole.