According to two Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies, 1 in 5 children in Utah is sexually abused before the age of 18, and 21% of high school-age girls reported having been sexually assaulted in the last 12 months.

The impact of child sexual abuse doesn’t end when the abuse stops; the trauma can last for years or decades after. According to statistics provided by Saprea, child sexual abuse survivors are:

• Three times more likely than the general population to attempt suicide.
• Five times more likely to be hospitalized for a physical or mental health problem.
• 40% more likely to drop out of high school.

Saprea is a nonprofit organization based in Lehi focused on child sexual abuse healing and prevention. For the company’s latest campaign, Saprea will use digital and broadcast ads as well as social media posts to spread awareness about child sexual abuse.

“It’s time to break the silence on something that’s been happening in our communities, and it’s been happening for too long to too many people,” said Matt Hartvigsen, executive director of Saprea. “This campaign is an effort to draw attention to that, to really help communities and the state of Utah to pay attention to a cause that should really be important to all of us.”

According to a press release, Saprea has helped more than 4,000 survivors through their in-person retreats for adult women in Utah and Georgia. The organization also facilitates support groups led by survivors in 13 different countries and offers online resources for healing, prevention and community education.

Thanks to private donations, these programs and services are provided by Saprea to participants for free.

Hartvigsen believes that raising awareness and spreading information on the alarming prevalence of child sexual abuse is the key to prevention.

“We know that when people know about an issue and have good information about that issue they are more aware of what’s going on, and then they’re more aware of solutions,” he said. “The first thing that a campaign like this does is it draws awareness to a cause and an issue like child sexual abuse, and then our natural question is, ‘What can we do about this?'”

For more information on Saprea and its services, visit https://saprea.org.

“As parents and families and community leaders, we should all be paying attention to this,” Hartvigsen said. “We can make a difference and make an impact for the children we love and in our communities, and that’s really what this campaign is about.”