photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

A teal ribbon tied to a tree in South Park for Sexual Assault Awareness Month is pictured Tuesday, March 31, 2026.

This April, Lawrence’s Sexual Trauma and Abuse Care Center is planning a trivia night, an art auction and more to help fund its education and support programs – and it’s bringing back a downtown vigil and march where survivors can speak out.

STACC’s slate of programming for Sexual Assault Awareness Month kicks off in earnest next week, said Christina Gentry, the center’s director of community engagement. But the unofficial kickoff has already happened, and you can see it in South Park. This week, the center partnered with the KU Panhellenic Association to tie teal ribbons around trees with a link to information about the center’s services.

“They were out there in the sunshine putting the teal ribbons on the trees, to highlight and to start a launch of what we hope will be a really engaging month of awareness, activities and just events that help to focus on safety in our community,” Gentry said.

The centerpiece of STACC’s programming this month is Take Back the Night, a vigil and march that gives survivors of sexual assault an opportunity to speak out about their trauma. Gentry said it’s been a couple of years since the vigil was last held, but STACC will “relaunch” it on April 25 in downtown Lawrence. Some details are still left to figure out, such as the guest speakers, but more information will be shared on the center’s social media when it becomes available.

Before that, the center has a variety of special programs and activities on tap. The first is a pop culture trivia night from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, April 9, at Rick’s Place, 846 Illinois St. It’s a $10 cover charge per person, and Gentry said 100% of the proceeds support the center.

On Sunday, April 12, there’s an 8-ball and 9-ball team pool tournament at Empire Bar and Billiards, 1527 W. Sixth St. Signup starts at 10:30 a.m. and play begins at 11. It’s $60 per team, and half of that money goes to STACC.

Then, there’s Sips for SafeBar, a weekend of specials at establishments that have completed SafeBar training through STACC and are part of the SafeBar Alliance. As the Journal-World has reported, the city of Lawrence has an ordinance that requires some bar and restaurant workers to undergo training on sexual assault intervention, and SafeBar is the program that STACC offers for that.

From April 16 through 19, participating SafeBar Alliance members will have special cocktails or mocktails on their menus, and 10% of the proceeds from those will be donated to the center. A list of establishments will be shared on the center’s social media pages beforehand.

Toward the end of the month, look for the Art for Healing online art auction. Its opening night is April 24 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Espuresso Cat Cafe, 1014 Massachusetts St., and it will continue through the month of May. Look for more information at stacarecenter.org as the opening date approaches.

These events raise money that the center uses to help support survivors of sexual assault through things like hotel expenses and clothing that aren’t covered by grants. “With our grants and things that we have, we don’t have unrestricted funding for some of the things that we know survivors need,” Gentry said.

It also helps support SafeBar and other training programs, which STACC provides to businesses for free on request.

Gentry said businesses interested in training can email preventionspecialist@stacarecenter.org to schedule a session. In the SafeBar training, she said, employees run through scenarios based on people’s actual experiences at bars and learn how to spot potential problems and deescalate without needing to get law enforcement involved.

“There’s no need to call an authority when we can do the good job of policing ourselves and making sure we’re safe for our community members,” Gentry said.

In addition to SafeBar, STACC offers sexual harassment training and a new human trafficking intervention training in partnership with the Willow Domestic Violence Center. That last one is intended to help bars and hotels spot warning signs of sex trafficking ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Kansas City area.

Some of the money for training comes from grants, but Gentry said the programs wouldn’t be possible without the center’s unrestricted funding that comes from fundraisers and donations.

“We provide all of these things for free,” Gentry said. “We provide prevention education for free, large-scale prevention education that includes SafeBar Alliance and our other trainings that we provide for the community.”

The center designed its programs to be “accessible, bite-sized, malleable” and tailored closely to local businesses and their needs, Gentry said.

“We’re not sourcing this information or any of our presentation information from national (data), Texas or California. We’re talking about Kansas. We’re using Kansas stats, Kansas data and what Kansans are speaking on when it comes to the issue of safety for our community,” she said. “… This is not just a copy-paste or check-the-box kind of safety toolkit we’re providing.”

What she hopes businesses and people in Lawrence remember this month is that the whole community is affected by sexual violence, and the whole community can help prevent it.

“Sexual violence doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” Gentry said. “It affects the fabric of our community.”