By: Cassie Beer, Women’s Fund Director
If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you may have heard about the “Cornell 7”—the name being used for seven men accused of sexually assaulting a Cornell University student in 2024. The case has recently returned to national attention after a civil lawsuit and the reopening of the criminal investigation.
I’m not interested in using a developing case to decide guilt or innocence—leave that to the investigators and the courts. But I am interested in what happens when a story like this enters our collective conversations.
Because when we talk about sexual violence, what is the conversation usually about?
We tell women to watch their drinks. Trust their instincts. Carry their keys between their fingers. Share their location. Avoid walking alone. Be careful about what they wear. Don’t go upstairs. Don’t leave with someone they don’t know. Don’t drink too much. Don’t get too drunk. To not put themselves in a vulnerable position.
Careful, careful, careful.
We teach women and girls how to avoid being assaulted.
And, of course, we should give people tools to keep themselves safe. We should make sure survivors have resources. We should make our communities safer. But what if we also asked a different question?
What are we teaching boys and men to do to prevent sexual violence?
The Numbers in Our Own Backyard
This isn't an abstract question for Allen County. Our latest research found that 40% of women ages 18–64 in Allen County have experienced sexual assault or rape. That's up from 30% in our 2020 study. More than half have experienced sexual harassment. And 45% have experienced domestic or intimate partner violence.
The Fort Wayne Police Department’s data tells another part of the story. In 2024, its Crimes Against Persons detectives were assigned 503 cases, including 93 rapes, 82 cases of child molestation, and 64 sexual-battery cases. The department’s cumulative crime statistics through April 2026 recorded 38 rapes within Fort Wayne city limits—20.8% fewer than the 48 recorded during the same period in 2025.
A decrease in reported cases is good news. But it doesn’t erase the larger reality reflected in our community survey: Sexual violence is common, and the majority of what happens will never appear in a police crime statistic. That should change how we think about prevention.
We Have to Stop Making Women’s Safety the Whole Solution
For years, much of our public messaging around sexual violence has essentially said: Here is how women can avoid becoming victims.
But sexual violence is not something that happens because women fail to take enough precautions.
A woman can do everything “right” and still be assaulted, AND a man can make a choice not to assault someone. Those two truths need to sit at the center of our prevention work.
This doesn’t mean blaming every man for the actions of some men. In fact, some of the most promising work happening nationally takes the opposite approach: Invite men into the solution rather than indict them.
Futures Without Violence has spent decades developing programs that engage men and boys as allies in preventing violence. The organization’s Coaching Boys Into Men program gives athletic coaches practical conversations to have with young male athletes about healthy relationships, respect, and the fact that violence never equals strength. Research has found that young men who participate are more likely to intervene when they see abusive or disrespectful behavior.
Organizations like A Call to Men have spent years challenging men and boys to develop a healthy, respectful understanding of masculinity—one in which women and girls are valued and safe.
And here locally, programs like the Peacemakers Academy by Alive Community Outreach are working with young people to prevent violence by addressing the individual and cultural conditions that allow violence to flourish.
These aren’t fringe ideas. They are part of a growing body of prevention work that recognizes something important: If we want different outcomes, we must give the people who can create those outcomes the tools to do it.
Changing the Story Changes What People Believe Is Possible
This is where I think the Pop Culture Collaborative’s work offers an especially important lesson.
The Pop Culture Collaborative focuses on narrative change: the idea that the stories and messages around us shape how we understand ourselves, other people, and what is possible. Pop culture is not just entertainment; it is one of the places where people develop ideas about identity, belonging, relationships, power, and how the world works.
That matters enormously when we’re talking about sexual violence. Because we aren’t just trying to teach people a list of behaviors—we're trying to change the story.
The old story says girls need to be careful. The new story needs to say everyone deserves safety.
The old story says teach your daughter how to avoid dangerous men. The new story needs to say teach your sons how to be men who make other people safer.
The old story says if you see something, say something. The new story needs to say you have a responsibility to step in.
And perhaps most importantly:
Boys don’t learn respect because they are afraid of getting in trouble. They learn respect because it is part of who they are.
That is a much bigger cultural shift than a poster campaign. But that’s exactly why narrative matters. The Pop Culture Collaborative’s work reminds us that lasting change requires changing the stories and cultural norms people swim in—not simply giving them information.
This Is Where No Matter What Needs to Go Next
The Women’s Fund launched No Matter What to make one thing unmistakably clear: No matter what happens, survivors deserve support.
No matter what they were wearing.
No matter how much they had to drink.
No matter whether they knew the person who harmed them.
No matter how long it took them to tell someone.
No matter what happened before, during, or after the violence.
That work matters. We need to make sure people experiencing sexual violence can find help quickly, privately, and without judgment, and our community needs to know where survivors can turn. But our research is telling us that we need to go further.
If 40% of women in our county have experienced sexual assault or rape, we cannot respond to that reality solely by becoming better at helping women after the horrific thing has happened.
We must get better at preventing it from happening in the first place.
Here is why we are so grateful to the Lilly Endowment for investing in expanding the No Matter What campaign: not simply to reach more survivors, but to reach the people who can help change the conditions.
In 2027, we’ll launch a new level of the No Matter What campaign in partnership with the agencies providing boots-on-the-ground survivor support. Not only will the campaign continue to connect survivors with the appropriate local resources, but it will also provide a common theme for all of us to hold up together, helping us start to change the narrative about sexual violence in our community.
We can change the numbers, but only if we are willing to change the message—together. No matter what.
If you have experienced sexual assault and need support, you are not alone. You deserve to be heard, believed, and supported—no matter what.
In Allen County, support is available. Visit NoMatterWhatFW.org to find the help you need.
If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
Whatever happened, it was not your fault.