(cheerful music) - The Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault believes that helping survivors is the Utah way.

Melissa Van Leeuwen joins us now with what you need to know about this issue in Utah.

Thank you so much for being here.

- Yeah, thank you for having us.

Some of the biggest issues that have come to our attention is just knowing that our state ranks number seven in the country for reported sexual assault.

So as a community, there's so many things we can do to gather together to help our community members.

We, as a coalition, started in 1996, with a community of people coming together wanting to make change and do better.

And now we've grown to 13 crisis centers across the state, with the goal that you're within one hour of having help.

We want people to understand if they need that, we're here, we believe you, we wanna help you.

- And you're kind of like the umbrella organization for all of the different centers and things like that, right?

- Yeah, so we have the opportunity to help technical assistance, help train and teach some of our coalitions throughout the state so that we're all providing the same level of service no matter where you live.

- It also sounds like spreading awareness is a big part of the battle.

- Absolutely, our three goals are education, prevention, and then legislative policy, which we just finished up on the Hill.

Just, you know, consistently fighting that fight so that survivors have a voice, that they're heard, that they're believed, and that they have a path for recovery.

- Why is this something that you're passionate about?

- Yeah, so when I first learned that one in three women here in Utah, in our state, will be affected by sexual assault, it blew my mind, but it goes deeper.

One in six men will be affected.

And then one in seven children, before they're 18, will have some sort of interaction of sexual assault.

As a mom, that just broke my heart.

I was like that is not okay.

I live here, I want a safe community for my children that are growing up.

And the only way to make a difference is to teach prevention, to teach our younger generation how to be better.

- And thank you so much for stopping by and sharing that there are ways that people can do that by volunteering, by giving back.

If you would like to learn more information, you can go to ucasa.org.

And if you need the Crisis Help Line, it's right there on your screen.

801-736-4356.

I'm Liz Adeola, and thank you so much for watching "Contact."

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