The focus for 2017 is Education/Awareness of Sexual Assault. Like many things, Launch began over coffee, over many coffees actually. We were just a couple of moms discussing some horror stories from college campuses, verifiable stories, not just urban legends. We also began discussing the reactions our daughters and other young women were having to these stories. Most of the accounts involved some
type of sexual assault; all involved devastated young women. As we listened more to girls talking about these scenarios we learned two things:
Young women are very clear on the indisputable fact that no one ever has the right to attack anyone else for any reason. Many young women have the attitude that they should, therefore, have the right to take a passive role in their own personal safety. While we are thrilled with the first, we are concerned about the second. It suggests that the girls are about to set out on a new adventure a little unprepared. Our strategy with Launch is to come alongside these girls and celebrate their rite of passage in a special way, a way that they will enjoy, remember, and discuss. We plan to give them a forum in which they can discuss and think about things that are already on their minds as they look toward their first year away from home, topics like what to wear and how to organize their dorm room or apartment. We then plan to present a few things to them that they likely have not been thinking about: most significantly, sexual assault. Our vision is that this will become an annual event, much anticipated by Lee’s Summit high school grads. We will be striving to make this celebration one in which the girls leave feeling the arms of Lee’s Summit wrapped around them in love and support. In three years, we plan to offer a similar event for the young men of Lee’s Summit.
