Woman uses own experiences to help sexual assault victims

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - At a young age, Kimber Nicoletti said she was part of a violent and sexually abusive relationship.

Now, she calls herself a survivor and said what she went through, no woman should ever have to endure.

Yet, Nicoletti said all too often, women don't know where to turn for help.

"There's always people that are uncomfortable accessing a mainstream service provider," said Nicoletti.

Because of this, Nicoletti decided to start a group called MESA. For more than a decade, the message has been the same: make sure underserved communities have an outreach.

"MESA is a sexual assault program focused on the inclusion of underserved populations and sexual violence prevention efforts," said Nicoletti.

Nicoletti said through MESA, community members can access different educational programs, as well as seek crisis intervention.

She said MESA also holds food and clothing drives for underserved people in our community. Yet, the most rewarding part of her job she said, is the community outreach.

"I remember one year, we had a bunch of cookies donated to us, and I thought, 'What are we going to do with all these cookies?'" said Nicoletti. "We started passing out cookies to homeless people. We would give them great big packages of them, and it was just so wonderful to give things to people and help them out."

Nicoletti said MESA helps several thousand people a year, and said since doing community outreach, they've collected almost $99,000 worth of clothing and food to give to others.

While Nicoletti said she's honored to receive the YWCA Woman of Distinction award, she said she doesn't do it for the recognition.

"I'm building on work that a lot of other women have done and just expanding it and doing what my mother and my grandmother have done," said Nicoletti.

The YWCA's Salute to Women Banquet is March 5.