June 29, 2023

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Moving to End Sexual Assault (MESA), a program of Mental Health Partners, has served the Boulder County community for over 50 years as a cornerstone of support for sexual assault survivors. To help accomplish this vital work, we are grateful to our passionate volunteers who are committed to helping survivors.

Currently, MESA is seeking community members to volunteer as a Hotline Advocate. Advocates provide critical emotional support to survivors via our hotline and text line and may accompany survivors to hospitals and police departments.

April 5, 2023

Matthew Jonas/Daily Camera

The Moving to End Sexual Assault program is offering trauma-informed yoga classes, providing a safe environment for trauma victims to connect with their minds and bodies, at their Lafayette offices.

MESA is a sexual violence resource center that gives support to sexual assault survivors in Boulder County. A Mental Health Partners program, it offers services such as training and prevention courses, medical and legal support and therapy — and, the  trauma-informed yoga.

March 16, 2023

Donut/Macie May

The Moving to End Sexual Assault program is offering trauma-informed yoga classes, providing a safe environment for trauma victims to connect with their minds and bodies, at their Lafayette offices.

MESA is a sexual violence resource center that gives support to sexual assault survivors in Boulder County. A Mental Health Partners program, it offers services such as training and prevention courses, medical and legal support and therapy — and, the  trauma-informed yoga.

March 3, 2023

Moving to End Sexual Assault, a Boulder County nonprofit dedicated to supporting survivors of sexual violence, is currently accepting applications for volunteer Hotline Advocates.

Hotline Advocates offer emotional support and resources to people who call or text MESA’s hotline. The volunteers also accompany survivors to hospitals, police stations and courts.

February 1, 2023

This Valentines Day, Moving to End Sexual Assault, an organization that aims to end sexual assault and violence is raising money for their 100 Heart Project.

There are three types of donations: a small, 5×5 heart for $100, a medium, 8×8 heart for $250 and a large 12×2 heart for $500.

After donating, MESA adds names on the heart and displays it on the “heart wall” at their office. “When you make a heart donation, you can honor your person in a meaningful way by adding their name or a message to the heart during the month of February” the news release read.

October 22, 2022

Isabella Hammond/CU Independent

Boulder County’s only sexual violence resource center celebrated its 50th anniversary in the evening on Thursday, Oct. 20.

“I think the fact that we’ve hit 50 years and we’re doing great and thriving is something I’m really proud of,” said Dr. Janine D’Anniballe, director of Moving to End Sexual Assault (MESA).

MESA has provided Boulder County with educational sexual violence prevention resources and sexual violence survivor support since 1972. A fundraising event called “The Brave, Bold and Beautiful” celebrated its 50 years of history and service.

The event featured a silent auction and wine pull for guests to participate in. Proceeds from these events went towards the organization. After an hour, past and current staff members of MESA spoke to the audience about the non-profit’s history and the stories they’ve heard over the years.

October 19, 2022

For Boulder County’s only sexual violence resource center, turning 50 is a clear sign that its services are greatly valued by the community.

“We’ve had incredible staying power,” said Janine D’Anniballe, director of Moving to End Sexual Assault. “Sexual violence isn’t a feel-good, warm, fuzzy topic. So the fact that we’ve made it 50 years and that we’re continuing to serve and thrive … I just feel really proud of that.”

MESA supports survivors of sexual violence and offers prevention training and education. Brave, Bold and Beautiful, the nonprofit’s premier fundraising event, will double this year as a celebration of its 50th anniversary.

October 11, 2022

The only support center for sexual assault victims in Boulder County will host its 50th-anniversary fundraiser next week. Boulder created what has become MESA, Moving to End Sexual Assault, in response to a high-profile abduction, sexual assault, and shooting of two young girls in 1972. The service was one of only three similar programs across the nation.

KGNU’s Alexis Kenyon spoke with Dr. Janine D’Anniballe, MESA’s longtime director. D’Anniballe is a nationally recognized expert in sexual assault and traumatic stress. Joining them was News Intern Claire Purnell.

Duration: 6:05 minutes

September 11, 2022

There is no comfortable way of talking about rape culture. But the fact of the matter is, that’s what needs to happen.

In the last three years, allegations of sexual assault in local schools have forced something of a reckoning — which, for many, was long overdue. Students, who are often burdened with the painful work of inciting societal change, have once again shown their bravery and come forward to report assaults and misconduct. They have raised their voices, they have walked out and they have demonstrated in order to force us — the adults and leaders and should-be role models of the larger Boulder community — to face the ugly reality that our culture propagates sexual assault.

July 19, 2021

Moving to End Sexual Assault is hosting a sexual violence prevention workshop for high school students and incoming college freshmen Friday in Boulder.

The workshop will cover the same materiel as the sexual violence prevention lessons taught to Boulder Valley students last school year as part of the school district’s efforts to increase education around the topic, said MESA Director Janine D’Anniballe.

She said MESA wasn’t able to get to every high school and so wanted to create a makeup session for those who missed the lessons or were in different grades. She noted almost 10% of Colorado ninth graders report they had experienced sexual or dating violence in the past year, according to the 2019 Healthy Kids Colorado survey.

Dr. Janine D’Anniballe of Moving to End Sexual Assault (MESA) and Mental Health Partners in Boulder County Colorado outlines the prevalence and needs of those suffering from sexual assault, abuse and collective trauma during the COVID pandemic. She discusses efforts being taken to support the King Soopers employees and the general community to cope after suffering from another mass shooting.

May 13, 2021

Boulder High School students walked out of class Thursday morning in support of survivors of sexual violence.

At 9:07 a.m., in honor of the 97% of women who say they have experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault, students left the classroom and gathered on a nearby soccer field to listen to speakers.

“We see you, we hear you, we believe you and we stand by you,” said Caroline Harris, a prevention education specialist at Boulder County’s Moving to End Sexual Assault.

Harris urged the students to help “shift our cultural norms” by having discussions about consent and boundaries.

Following the speakers, the students observed two minutes of silence for survivors before the walkout ended.

April 21, 2021

In the 2019 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, nearly 7 percent of students reported they’d been physically forced to have sexual intercourse when they didn’t want to. Eight percent said they made sexual comments, jokes, gestures or looks at someone when they were unwanted. At a Boulder Valley School District school board presentation in January, Boulder County Public Health officials said they saw a 64 percent increase in emergency room visits for sexual violence by 10- to 17-year-old’s in 2019-2020.

Now the experiences of two young women in Boulder are fueling change in Denver.

In 2018 and 2019, two high-profile cases involving allegations of sexual assault by two high school athletes roiled the student bodies in Boulder. One involved a Fairview High School football quarterback.

“The case that got media attention was only scratching the surface of how bad the problem was,” said Sophie Dellinger, 19, a Fairview graduate.

April 9, 2021

Students at Boulder’s Fairview High School walked out Friday to show support for survivors of sexual violence, two days after a former student was acquitted in a sex assault trial.

At 11 a.m. hundreds of students, most of them dressed in black to show solidarity with survivors, streamed out of the school and walked to the football field. There, they observed five minutes of silence in honor of survivors before several speakers, including Dr. Janine D’Anniballe, the director of Boulder’s Moving to End Sexual Assault.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness month, and D’Anniballe said one challenge has always stood in the way of seeking justice for victims of sexual violence.

“That challenge rests in this fundamental issue of not believing survivors,” she said. “Here we are in 2021, facing that same challenge.”