Dallas proclaims April 2025 Sexual Assault Awareness Month; advocates press for services and faster evidence testing

Council Member Gaye Janelle Willis read a proclamation declaring April 2025 Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Dallas on behalf of the mayor and city council, and organizers used the event to underscore services for survivors and steps to shorten delays in police response and forensic testing.

The proclamation, read by Willis, cited national observance and prevalence estimates, saying '2 in 5 women and 1 in 5 men in Texas' have experienced sexual assault. The city-level numbers read aloud in the proclamation were garbled in the transcript and are not reported here as exact totals. Willis opened the event by thanking advocates and city staff for organizing the annual observance.

Amy Jones, chief executive officer of the Dallas Area Crisis Center (Darcy), called for urgency and accountability. 'This is about urgency. This is about accountability, and this is about truth,' Jones said, noting Darcy's hotline, hospital advocacy and counseling services and urging the city not to let misleading narratives discourage survivors from seeking help. She repeated the center's 24-hour crisis line: (972) 641-7273.

Jones also criticized statements that link immigration status with perpetration, saying such claims are 'not only incorrect, it is dangerous' and that undocumented people are more likely to be victims than perpetrators, a point she said should guide public messaging and outreach so survivors are not deterred from reporting.

Major Kaylee Hawks described an operational change begun in late 2023 to allow certain reports to be taken by phone so victims who go to hospitals do not wait as long for an officer to arrive. Hawks said communications staff, the sexual-assault unit and SANE nurses developed a training program to support that workflow. Hawks also told the gathering that the department had sent remaining evidence kits to Bodhi Technology for testing and that 'we have 332 kits left to be tested' with an expected completion by Oct. 1.

Council Member Gay Lewis thanked staff and volunteers, praised the partnerships between the city, Darcy and health-care providers and noted increased reporting and outreach to survivors. The transcript records differing tallies of volunteers and outreach across speakers; for example, Darcy staff cited multiple metrics over the event (training 'nearly 1,000' volunteers in one set of remarks and 'nearly 800' in another). The article does not reconcile those discrepancies beyond noting the organization’s growth and expanded outreach.

Ashley Gavada, Senior Public Information Officer with the Office of Arts and Culture, spoke about arts-based healing and public programs, highlighting free monthly programming across four cultural centers and a live performance at the event by Maria Dumo and a heritage string quartet.

What’s next: the event was ceremonial and did not record a formal council vote. Organizers encouraged attendees to use the crisis hotline and to attend the Public Safety Committee meeting later that day.