Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) will host 'Take Back the Night' on Wednesday, April 23.
The event will begin at 11 a.m. at its Dandini Campus Student Center.
Organized in partnership with Safe Embrace, Crisis Support Services of Nevada (CSSNV), and the National Coalition to END Domestic and Sexual Violence (NCEDSV), the free event will feature a campus solidarity walk, speakers, a resource fair, and a candlelight vigil.
The event creates space for survivors to be heard and communities to unite in the fight against sexual violence. “Take Back the Night is more than just an event—it is a moment of courage, healing, and hope,” said Shaun Mabanta, victim services coordinator at CSSNV. “Your attendance is a powerful statement that survivors are not alone.”
Launched internationally in the 1970s, the movement grew in the U.S. after a 1975 murder in Philadelphia led to one of the country’s first marches.
Now a global effort, it’s held every April for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Attendees can engage with Paws 4 Love therapy dogs and leave written messages of support for survivors across Northern Nevada.
Organizers say they also encourage attendees to wear denim in solidarity with Denim Day (April 30), a campaign challenging myths around sexual assault that began after a 1998 Italian court overturned a rape conviction because the survivor’s jeans were deemed “too tight” to remove without consent.
“Every year, Take Back the Night gives survivors and allies a space to be seen and heard,” said Afshan West, executive director of Safe Embrace. “It’s a moment for us to show up—together—as a community that refuses to be silent in the face of violence.”
