VCU news

By Corey Byers and Bree Bever

Volunteers will assemble kits for sexual assault survivors on April 28 at an event organized by Virginia Commonwealth University and Fear 2 Freedom.

The VCU event will be held from 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. in the Jonah L. Larrick Student Center on the VCU Health MCV Campus. A light dinner will be provided for volunteers. Media are welcome to attend.

The project is an annual event hosted by VCU and Fear 2 Freedom, a global nonprofit organization working to help victims of sexual assault. Students, faculty, staff and the public are invited to help assemble the kits, which will include toiletries, clothing, toys and sexual assault educational information and resources. Kits will benefit survivors of sexual assault at VCU Medical Center and at The Gray Haven, which provides support for human trafficking victims.

Rosemary Trible, the founder of Fear 2 Freedom and the wife of Paul Trible, a former U.S. senator and current president of Christopher Newport University, will deliver opening remarks about her personal experience as a sexual assault survivor.

Fear 2 Freedom’s mission is to redeem and restore those wounded by sexual assault, bringing them hope and healing, and to change the cultural understanding surrounding this issue by empowering college students to “Be the Change” and “Restore the Joy.”

F2F partners hospitals and community organizations with universities to provide Fear 2 Freedom Aftercare Kits to survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, sex trafficking and child abuse. In the past three years, the organization has provided more than 12,000 kits to victims of abuse.

The kits will be delivered to the VCU Medical Center Emergency Department via ambulance at the conclusion of the event.