Students and community members will get an opportunity to walk in the shoes of sexual violence survivors, literally, at the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event Sunday.

The event, hosted by the Sexual Assault Counseling and Information Service, hopes to bring awareness to sexual violence by inviting anyone to participate in a one-mile walk at Morton Park, 1215 Division St., Charleston. Registration for the event starts at noon, with the walk following at 1 p.m. Participants, both men and women, are encouraged to wear high heels and other women’s shoes.

Erin Walters, the executive director of SACIS, said the event is meant to raise awareness and support for the victims and survivors of sexual violence, as well as those who work with them.

“This is an all-encompassing awareness event because we may not understand what someone is going through who has experienced sexual violence or even their friends or family, but we want to try to understand,” she said.

Walters, who has been the executive director of SACIS since 2012, said she hopes the event will change the way people view sexual violence.

“Often times you hear people saying you never really know what somebody goes through until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes and that’s sort of the significance here,” she said. “A lot of people have preconceived notions about sexual violence that are not accurate, and so this is kind of an awareness walk that draws attention to that idea that sometimes our perceptions are not reality.”

The event is not a race, but a casual walk around Charleston’s Morton Park. The walk will start under the large pavilion, and then continue across the front of the park on the sidewalk, Walters said.

General registration fees start at a $25 minimum donation, with a minimum of $15 for students and seniors. The minimum donation for a team of five or more starts at $20 per team member. Registration for families starts at a minimum of $40, but it is asked that an additional $5 be donated after the first two household members. Children walking with families not of their guardianship must bring a signed waiver, available at www.sacis.org, to the event. Each participant will receive a T-shirt.

There is also an option to participate virtually for those who cannot be in attendance but would still like to donate.

Pre-registration is available at www.firstgiving.com/sacis.

Following the walk, awards will be given out for participants with the best legs, most creative shoes, most captivating walk poster, most money raised, and others.

Money raised for the event will benefit services directly within SACIS, Walters said. The funds will also go towards providing services to clients of SACIS during its relocation process.

“We will be moving our location off campus within the next month or so,” Walters said. “We want to be able to provide consistent services to our clients during our transition, so that money will support the move and our ability to maintain consistent services during the move.”

SACIS is currently located in the basement of Lawson Hall, 2151 Fourth Street, Charleston, but will soon be moving to 1505 18th St., Suite #2, Charleston.

“We wanted a location that was easily accessible by community members, but also accessible by the EIU students,” Walters said. “We do plan to make accommodations for the EIU students who want to be seen closer to campus, so that’s something that’s in the works. We don’t envision any problems, any dips in services with our student population, but we do envision an increase in services with our community members because it will be more easily accessible than it is on campus.”

This is the first Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event in Charleston, but other members of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault (ICASA), such as those in Springfield, Champaign, Vandalia and throughout the Chicago land have put on similar events.

Walters said that through SACIS sponsored events such as this and Take Back The Nights, a candlelit walk to support survivors of sexual violence, survivors will know they are not alone and that there is support.

“We’re hoping that in increasing awareness that this is not an uncommon issue, this is not an isolated event, but in fact, this does happen more often, that the people who think they’re all alone in their process will realize, you’re not alone and we are here and we want to extend our services to you and our support more than anything,” she said.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].