STUDENT ACTIVISTS
AND SURVIVORS
How to help end sexual violence and connect to resources
Young people are powerful changemakers who can make a difference in ending sexual violence. If you want to learn about the anti gender-based violence movement and ways to get involved, you’re in the right place! Check out the various topics on this page:
What Is Gender-Based Violence?
How Can I Help End Sexual Violence?
What If I’ve Been Assaulted?
How Can I Help a Friend?
Where Can I Find Support?
What Is Gender-Based Violence?
Gender-based violence is when harm is inflicted on a person because of their gender, gender identity/expression, or sexual orientation. It commonly refers to both intimate partner violence and sexual violence, which often overlap. It takes many forms, including harassment, abuse, assault, and exploitation.
Intimate partner violence is abuse or aggression that occurs in a romantic relationship. Sexual violence or sexual harm happens when a person’s dignity, sense of safety, personal autonomy, or boundaries are violated through unwanted sexual conduct.
Here are some examples of what gender-based violence can look like:
- Contacting you repeatedly with unwanted texts, messages, or calls
- Keeping tabs on where you are, demanding to know what you are doing, following or stalking you
- Threatening you verbally or physically
- Abusing you physically, such as slapping, punching, kicking, or choking you
- Making repeated sexual comments about you, including on social media and messaging platforms
- Verbally abusing you with anti-LGBTQ+, gender, or sex-based insults
- Pressuring you to take part in sexual acts
- Sharing private or nude pictures of you without your permission
- Interfering with your birth control
- Touching you sexually against your will
- Attempting or forcing you to have oral, vaginal, or anal sex
- Trading sex acts for anything of value, such as shelter, food, gifts, or money
How Can I Help End Sexual Violence?
Many people want to help end gender-based violence but may not know where to begin. Thankfully there are lots of ways to get involved!
Join the Movement
Connecting with like-minded activists and learning from others is a great way to get started. Look for local clubs or groups that are working against gender-based violence. Your school, local domestic violence or rape crisis center, or faith-based organizations might host them. You can also find communities online. National organizations such as Girls for Gender Equality, Know Your IX, and End Rape On Campus are a few that center on young people.
Social media is another way to link with people who share the same passions. Click the plus sign below to check out Instagram accounts working against sexual harm and follow the ones that resonate with you. They can be an excellent resource for learning and finding out about actions you can take.
Help Improve Policies At Your School
Schools should be free of harassment so all students can access safe learning environments. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. Your school’s culture may ignore or even foster sexual harm, and its policies may make things worse for survivors. If that’s the case, your activism could have a big impact!
To start, you can advocate for school policies that are based on best practices and follow laws to help keep students safe. This student toolkit from the National Women’s Law Center and Girls for Gender Equity does a great job of providing information on the process and action steps you can take to make a difference.
Help Improve Laws
There are always opportunities to improve how systems respond to gender-based violence. One way is through advocacy for state and national laws that help prevent sexual harm and support survivors. No matter your age, you can get involved. Organizations make it easy by regularly sharing information about actions you can take to support or oppose legislation on behalf of survivors, which may include filing witness slips on bills or contacting your local, state, and federal representatives.
In Illinois, these organizations include:
- Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation
- Recent legislation CAASE prioritized (many have been signed into law).
- Be sure to follow @theCAASE on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on ways you can help advocate for survivors and improve public policy.
- The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence
- The Network has a Policy Action Center so you can stay involved in calls to action
- Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault
- ICASA’s Legal Issues website shares what legislation they’re working on
- Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Support Work to End Sexual Harm
In your activism, you’re bound to find organizations doing work aligned with your values. You can spur them on by helping fund their efforts or spread the word. For example, folks who support CAASE can:
- Set up a birthday fundraiser benefiting CAASE on social media
- Follow and re-post from @theCAASE on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
- Tell a teacher, administrator, or club faculty advisor about CAASE’s Prevention Education programs you want at your school
- Pledge a walk or run in our annual springtime Race for CAASE
If you have questions or want to learn more, contact us on social media or email info@caase.org.
What If I’ve Been Assaulted?
If someone has harmed you, know you’re not alone and have options. You can call 911 for emergency assistance if you are in immediate danger. If you are safe now, you can think about what you want to do next. How you proceed is up to you.
Telling Someone
Survivors often reach out to friends, family, or a trusted adult in the aftermath of harm but starting the conversation may feel intimidating. You can take steps to think through this choice, help ease yourself into the conversation, and protect yourself if the listener is not supportive. Check out “Telling Someone You’ve Been Sexually Assaulted” for details
Please note that some people are “mandated reporters,” meaning they are required to report the abuse or neglect of minors to child welfare authorities. Mandated reporters are typically people who work with children during their professional duties, including school employees, recreation or athletic program personnel, medical and mental health personnel, and many more. You can find a complete list of positions for Illinois here. Having this information can help you decide who you want to tell.
Getting Assistance from Your School
Survivors may have a hard time with school—missing classes or seeing their grades drop—and may suffer depression, anxiety, or other mental health challenges. If you are a student survivor of gender-based violence or sexual harassment, your school can offer accommodations that no one else can, such as:
- Excusing absences
- Assisting with schoolwork
- Helping you feel safe at school and more
Learn how your school can help here. This toolkit is also a helpful resource!
Knowing Your Rights
Multiple state and federal laws are intended to protect students from gender discrimination—including gender-based violence like sexual harassment and sexual assault. Some of these laws are also meant to prevent sexual harm and support student survivors when it occurs. You can learn about those that currently apply in Illinois below:
- A federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding (nearly all schools). This includes gender-based violence like sexual harassment and sexual assault. The law requires schools to respond and fix hostile educational environments. Not doing so is a violation and the school can be at risk of losing federal funding.
- Title IX regulations changed in 2020 and are likely to change again in the near future. If you believe your school has not complied with Title IX, contact CAASE so we can help you understand your rights.
- A federal law requiring colleges and universities to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses. Crimes, including sexual assault, are to be included in a published Annual Security Report (ASR) and should be available on your school’s website. Schools must also document crime statistics for incidents that occur on campus and at certain non-campus areas and facilities, issue timely warnings of known risks to public safety on campus, and create an emergency response, notification, and testing policy.
- The Campus Sexual Assault Victim’s Bill of Rights is also part of the Clery Act. It requires colleges to grant and disclose certain basic rights to sexual assault victims and that they notify victims of their option to report their assault to law enforcement.
- This Illinois law requires higher education institutions in the state to develop a clear, comprehensive campus sexual violence policy, notify student survivors about their rights, provide a confidential advisor to survivors to help them understand their options and rights, adopt a fair and balanced process for adjudicating allegations of sexual violence, train students and campus employees to prevent sexual violence, allow students to report information electronically, allow a third party or bystander to report an incident, and respond to a report submitted electronically within 12 hours.
If your school fails to provide appropriate accommodations or violates your rights, it is best to speak to an attorney specializing in education matters. For example, CAASE offers free consultation and representation to students and may be able to help you get accommodations, assert your rights, and take action if your school is not complying with the law. Learn more below in the legal help section or visit “I’m a Student-Survivor—How Can My School Help Me?”.
Seeking Help from Law Enforcement
One choice survivors make is whether or not to report the crime to the police. Understanding the process can help you make the right decision for yourself. By reading “What Happens If I Report a Sexual Assault to Police?” you’ll learn about the steps involved in reporting, what to expect, and what to do if you need help working with law enforcement after a sexual assault.
How Can I Help a Friend?
Someone may choose to tell you about the harm they’ve experienced. Showing compassionate support can help them heal and find the help they may be seeking. Be prepared by checking out this post on “How to Support Someone Who’s Been Sexually Assaulted.”
You may also witness harm happening. It might be in a classroom, online, on the bus, at a party…anywhere. The good news is that you can learn how to step up! This is called “bystander intervention.” Read “How to Speak Up When You See Harassment” to build the skills to disrupt bad situations.
Where Can I Find Support?
Whether you want to work against sexual violence, support survivors, or are seeking help for yourself, there are lots of supports available. You can read about several of them above and there are even more below.
Resources
Click the plus signs below to view lists of anti gender-based violence organizations which offer opportunities of advocacy and supports for survivors. These are great starting points for getting involved or finding help.
- Advice and support for survivors of sexual harm in English or Spanish
- Phone: 888-293-2080
- Information about birth control, abortion, and STIs
- Phone: 800-230-7526
Center on Halsted: Chicago LGBTQ+ Rape Crisis Hotline
- LGBTQ+ youth programs, help for LGBTQ+ survivors, and HIV/AIDS and STI testing
- Phone: 773-871-2273
Howard Brown Sexual Harm Response Program
- Medical services, legal support, rape kit collection, and therapy for survivors
- Crisis counseling, help with medical services, and support while interacting with law enforcement
- Phone: 312-443-9603
- Servicios de apoyo en casos de abuso sexual o violencia doméstica en inglés y español
- Phone: 773-890-7676
- Opportunities for survivors to connect, share their stories, and end violence against girls and women
- Free legal aid for survivors, including students filing reports at school
CAASE: Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation
- Free legal aid for survivors (including students), public policy advocacy opportunities, and prevention education programs for teens
- Phone: 773-244-2230, Email: info@caase.org
- Advice about teen dating, healthy relationships, and personal safety
- Phone: 866-331-9474
- Or text LOVEIS to 22522
Roo: The Sexual Health Chatbot
- Live chat for questions about sexual health, relationships, and growing up
- Information about porn addiction
Equal Rights Advocates: Student Survivor Toolkit
- A toolkit for students who have experienced sexual harm or dating violence
- An organization focused on legal issues related to gender
- Toolkit for advocacy for improved school policies and tips for getting your school to prevent sexual harm
Legal Help
Survivors of sexual harm have rights. Unfortunately, they are not always upheld or respected. You may find that your school is failing to provide appropriate accommodations or that law enforcement is mismanaging or ignoring your report. In these situations, it is best to speak to an attorney.
CAASE specializes in serving survivors. We provide free consultation and representation and may be able to help you get accommodations, assert your rights, and take action if they are violated. For example, CAASE can help student survivors (ages 13+) with:
- Requesting to make up schoolwork, switching classes, and extending deadlines
- Reporting harm to their school
- Navigating the school disciplinary process once they make a report
- Requesting a school safety plan
- Filing a complaint against the school if they mishandled a case
- Asking for a protective order in civil court
- Making a police report
- Assisting with navigating a criminal investigation
- Helping survivors understand and assert their rights as crime victims and more
Explore options for legal assistance:
- In school: “Legal Help for Students”
- In the legal system: “Victim’s Rights Representation”
To learn more about our free legal services or schedule a consultation, please call our legal intake line at 773-244-2230, ext. 205, or email legal@caase.org. We’re available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday – Friday. Minors ages 13+ can contact CAASE without their parent or guardian’s involvement.
Please note that CAASE works on cases involving sexual assault, abuse, harassment, or trafficking within Cook County, IL. Victims must have been 13 or older when the harm occurred. CAASE cannot accept cases that may involve Family Law (marriage, divorce, property in common, or custody of children in common) or victims who do not want to participate in the legal process, even if they are minors. If CAASE can’t assist you, we will try to connect you to another attorney and support resources.
Recent Blog Posts
Our blog is a great place to read about efforts to end sexual harm, ways to support survivors, and how to get involved.
