Although the Holmes Student Center’s Carl Sandburg Auditorium was not full Monday night during “Breaking the Silence: Speak Out Against Sexual Violence,” victims’ voices still were heard.

The event, which was sponsored by Safe Passage and the Counseling & Student Development Center, gave sexual assault victims a chance to tell their stories.

Karen Herbst-Kim, a reverend with the Association of Campus Ministries, led the event with a prayer for those who have been assaulted and for sexual assault to end.

Ron Matekaitis, the DeKalb County state’s attorney, introduced Jennifer Welch, the policy adviser for women’s issues to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Welch praised survivors for coming in and sharing their stories with the community.

“We all have a common priority,” Welch said. “It’s making women safe on the streets.”

Welch also encouraged people to look up sex offenders on the Internet.

“You should know who is living in your neighborhood,” Welch said.

Kristen Erekson is a survivor of sexual assault. She shared her story to encourage people to speak out against violence after she was raped by her boyfriend in high school.

“I am not glad that it happened,” Erekson said, “but I know it changed my life for the better because I am a stronger, more independent person now.”

T-shirts on clotheslines from sexual assault survivors also were present. The shirts were created as a healing process, said Diane Pospisil-Kinney, an event organizer.

“This makes the statistics real,” Pospisil-Kinney said. “These are real people for each T-shirt that has been created.”

Marilyn Garcia is a volunteer for Safe Passage in DeKalb. She said it is important to hold events like this because it promotes speaking out against sexual assaults.

“I think for the most part, it is something people don’t really like to talk about,” Garcia said. “It’s kept pretty much private and hidden, and it’s a shameful thing for a lot of people, unfortunately. I think this is a good way for people to know it is a community problem, and it’s something people should be aware of.”

The event concluded with a candlelight vigil and a musical performance by the Rev. Linda Slabon and Toni Tollerud, a professor at NIU.

“It’s really hard to speak about this,” Erekson said. “I think the major reason I can is that I hope that if someone is in a similar situation to what I was in, they can find courage from what I say and maybe seek help or work through it.”