One out of every four girls will be sexually assaulted or abused by the time they are 18. For boys, that number is one out of every six.

In Cayuga County last year, therapists with the Sexual Assault Victims' Advocate Resource served 80 people, 60 of them children.

"They're not alone. SAVAR is here for them," said Rosa Grube, education coordinator for SAVAR, a 14-year-old program of Cayuga Counseling Services Inc. "We want people who have been victimized to heal and become survivors."

April is sexual assault awareness month. As part of SAVAR's programming, the group screened a film on sexual abuse, followed by a discussion on Thursday evening at Cayuga Community College. The film, "Woman Thou Art Loosed," told the story of a child who was abused by her mother's boyfriend. As an adult, she killed her abuser.

"It's important to share a story like that," said one woman who attended the screening. Attendees asked they not be named for confidentiality reasons.

"She was a prisoner all her life because of what happened to her," said another woman who watched the film.

Despite recent headline-making events - sexual abuse by priests and the abduction of children in Florida and elsewhere -Grube said the problem is not new.

"What's new is that people now know they can come forward and talk about it," she said.

SAVAR workers and volunteers respond to incidents of sexual assault or abuse. They walk the victim through the steps of reporting the assault: police, hospitals and, later, the court system.

"How many people are out there who have the hurt and it continues to eat away at them?" Grube said. "Some of the strongest people I know are survivors."