To help spread awareness about childhood sexual abuse suffered by men, The Cottage Sexual Assault and Children's Advocacy Center will host its inaugural 1BlueString event Friday at Nuci's Space.

During the awareness event, guests will here acoustic sets from local musicians and guitarists who have switched out the low E string on their guitars with a blue string as a show of solidarity with the victims.

"A lot of people tend to think a victim of childhood sexual abuse is going to be a female and there's a national initiative to bring more awareness of the fact that males also are survivors of sexual abuse," said Cottage Executive Director Sally Sheppard.

Those in attendance also will hear a story of survival and healing from Alan McArthur, who shared his story of sexual abuse in the investigative article "Boland's Boys" that ran in the Athens Banner-Herald last year.

"Alan came to me last year after his story ran in the paper and said he felt empowered to speak about his experiences to help others," Sheppard said. "When we came up with the awareness event, I thought he would be the perfect featured speaker. I'm happy he'll be there to share his story and help others and the cause."

One in six men endured sex abuse as a child, said Sheppard.

In addition to bringing awareness to their plight, Sheppard said she also hopes the event will spark more research on male victims of sexual abuse that might result in therapies targeted at male survivors. She also hopes to remove the stigma male victims feel that might prevent them from coming forward to seek help.

"Most of the research used to help survivors of childhood sexual abuse is focused on female survivors rather than male survivors, but that research is used to help male survivors of sexual abuse" she said. "Because the healing process is different for males ... more research needs to be done on how males react after sexual abuse occurs and new healing therapies need to be created."

The event is free and open to the public. It starts at 5:30 p.m.

Nuci's Space is located at 396 Oconee St. in Athens.

Fore more information, visit www.northgeorgiacottage.org.

Follow faith, health and Blueprint reporter April Burkhart at www.facebook.com/AprilBurkhartABH.