Prevention and education through ALMAA at NEIU

When most people hear or think of sexual assault or violence, the image of a young woman scantily dressed, in the wee hours of the night, at a bar or club might come to mind. This was not the case for Debbi Wilieko, a Des Plaines resident and insurance professional, who became a victim and survivor of sexual violence in her 40s, when she was drugged in broad daylight at a fine dining establishment in a business setting.

"Part of the problem is that the substances linger in your system and leave you amnesiac, so you don't know if you are dreaming, having a sexual fantasy or having a nervous breakdown," Wilieko said.

It was this experience, however, that motivated her to become the founder and president of Advocacy, Living, and Mentoring After Assault, Inc (ALMAA), to provide tools and resources to any and all victims of sexual assault or violence. The goal of ALMAA is to increase and create campus awareness of the frequency of sexual violence.

Since April is "Sexual Assault Awareness Month," the group will be tabling on Tuesday, April 20 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Village Square with reading material, embossed sport bottles and bracelets. All of this will be done to spread the word about sexual assault and what can be done to prevent it as well as to help those who have been victims of sexual assault.

"If someone like me tells a large portion of the population about what happened to me it scares them, because it makes people realize it can happen to people like us," said Wilieko regarding what she dealt with from police, public officials and hospital health care workers.

She said that it was as if she was offending them by telling the authority figures that something like that had happened to a woman like her.

People like to think that sexual assault can't happen in their neighborhood because it is supposed to be safe in "our" community, so ALMAA wishes to inform people of all walks of life that sexual assault and violence occurs no matter what community or environment one may belong to or comes from.

"It's hard for people to imagine, because if you have a certain type of lifestyle, one wants to believe that bad things like this don't happen," Wilieko said of the mindset many people in our society have in regards to who are seen as victims of their environment. She further stated that, "People like to think that it can't happen in our neighborhood."

Wilieko talked about how "if the environment is already blighted, then [the assumption] is that these kinds of things are already happening there, so it's just another bad thing."

This is the type of mindset ALMAA tries to lessen by collaborating with other organizations like the Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CASA).

"We're working hand-in-hand with local CASA offices to meet with Chicago and suburban Chicago school administrators to promote "Safe Body" educational programs," Wilieko said.

CASA has age-appropriate material and information, from grades 3 to 12, about sexual assault and violence awareness that are part of the "Safe Body" education and prevention material. At the moment, ALMAA is currently in the process of meeting two sets of Chicago area schools and their administrators to start "Safe Body" education programs at the schools. ALMAA also hopes to spread awareness through conferences for PTA's and PTO's, since it is seen as a taboo topic, even though the "Safe Body" curriculum is free through CASA.

"It's about having dialog about the subject of sexual violence, and if a person has been a victim, our website gives them a place to gather information, if they haven't already done so," Wilieko said.

For more information on ALMAA, readers can go to their website at www.almaa.org, which will have a Spanish version of the site set up by the end of June 2010, or become a fan or join the "Cause" on Facebook.