The Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers (MAPS) is marking this year’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) in April by participating in the Denim Day campaign, the longest-running worldwide sexual violence prevention and education campaign. The organization will also promote several conversations in the community and online about the meaning of consent in sexual relationships.
Throughout the month, the organization’s Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault team will ask MAPS staff members to wear denim jeans and a t-shirt with statements regarding sexual assault as part of the Denim Day campaign. The health and social services nonprofit organization will then take to social media to share the messages and engage the community in conversations around the topic “What you Wear is Not an Invitation” with some of the organization’s prevention specialists and community mental health professionals.
Denim Day takes place on April 30, when millions of people across the world wear jeans to raise awareness of the need to support survivors and educate themselves and others about all forms of sexual violence.
The campaign originated in 1999 in response to a controversial ruling by the Italian Supreme Court, which overturned a rape conviction on the basis that the victim was wearing tight jeans. The justices argued that the jeans were so tight that the victim must have assisted in removing them—implying consent. In protest of this decision and solidarity with the victim, female members of the Italian Parliament wore jeans to work, sparking a powerful movement for justice and awareness.
MAPS will host a live conversation on April 22, from 7 to 8 PM, on the organization’s Instagram page (instagram.com/maps_org) with MAPS Prevention Specialist Fania da Silva, psychotherapist Ana Nava, Ph.D., and psychiatric nurse practitioner and MAPS 2025 Mary and Manuel Rogers Lifetime Community Service Award recipient, Edilia Gomes, NP.
On May 23, at 4:30 PM, MAPS heads to the Consulate General of Cabo Verde in Quincy, MA, for another community discussion with a community member who is also a survivor of sexual violence, and MAPS Director of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault services, Dulce Ferreira, MA.
The MAPS program offers free, confidential, and personalized support, crisis intervention, safety planning, information, guided referrals, medical and legal advocacy, and related services to victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. It receives funding from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance (MOVA; VSS Grant), the Executive Office of Public Safety (VAWA Grant), the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (SASP/CSP Grant), and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families. To learn more about the program, please visit maps-inc.org/dvsa.