How NYC Is Addressing Sexual Assault In Communities Of Color

The Mayor's Office to Combat Domestic Violence has held 1,300 outreach events this year alone.

The New York City's Office to Combat Domestic Violence is working tirelessly to help victims of rape and sexual assault -- and a large number of those they help includes women of color.

According to the Women of Color Network, nearly 40 percent of black women report having experienced sexually coercive contact by age 18 -- a figure that could be considered a conservative estimate because rape and sexual assault are seriously underreported.

Rosemonde Pierre-Louis, whom Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed as commissioner of his Office to Combat Domestic Violence in 2014, joined HuffPost Live on Friday and shared how her team is combatting the issue of sexual assault among communities of color.

"One of the things we've been doing through the mayor's office is getting out into communities you want to be able to create that kind of awareness," she told host Zerlina Maxwell. "So this year alone, we've done over 1,300 outreach events in every single part of the city ... focusing on communities where we know that domestic violence [and] sexual assault are happening at a disproportionate rate."

Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation about the response to on-campus sexual assault here.

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