The recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness Month is an annual event in Washington State. It is a time for individuals and communities to come together to raise awareness and take action against sexual assault.

By discovering and rethinking the ways that people can be solutions - as bystanders, friends and family, and intimate partners - the campaign seeks to make a meaningful impact on sexual violence. It is everybody's responsibility to step up, ask questions, and believe survivors. Ending sexual violence takes all of us.

Sexual assault is an intolerable crime that affects all of us. It permeates and deteriorates society as a whole. Its impact can be found in our schools, on our playgrounds, campuses, families, workplaces, and threaded throughout our society. Sexual Assault Awareness Month is a continuation of our efforts to bring about change and justice, promote healing, and to create a tomorrow that transcends sexual violence.

Towards that end, we encourage you to use the 2009 materials to initiate a campaign that speaks to bystanders, friends and family, intimate partners, and the public. Each community sexual assault program in Washington will receive campaign materials, in advance of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, for distribution in their local community. We hope that efforts in this campaign will move us closer in the mission of social change.