WILTON – Recent statistics indicate one in five people in Maine will experience sexual assault or abuse in their lifetime, Julia Terry, community outreach and education coordinator for Sexual Assault Victims Emergency Services, said Wednesday.

A group in Wilton will offer a training session to help people recognize and learn how to respond to people in the community who have domestic abuse or sexual assault occurring in their lives, Terry said.

The training is planned from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 1, at the Academy Hill cafeteria.

Educators from SAVES and the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project will lead the training open to anyone in Wilton or elsewhere, Terry said.

The Wilton Community Group formed a couple months ago after Terry approached Pastor Douglas Dunlap of the Wilton Congregational Church to see if the church and perhaps other churches in town would be interested in training on domestic violence.

“I suggested that we extend the idea and think more broadly,” Dunlap said, “and hold an event that would involve the larger Wilton community.”

A group of approximately 15 people have gathered for a couple planning meetings to make this type of information available to the community and now are ready for their first training session, he said. They hope more will join them and engage in more targeted topics such as child and elder abuse.

The group includes representatives from the Wilton Police Department, Board of Selectmen, churches, a University of Maine at Farmington student, community members and agency representatives.

“The group has taken on a life of its own and will hopefully be a flagship or model group for community-based response for other areas in Franklin County,” Terry said.

Terry began working with the Farmington Area Ecumenical Ministry last week and hopes to extend training to smaller communities within the county.

“We can’t incite change unless community members assess their needs and want to go forward in building healthy relationships,” she added.

This is information that people in all communities should have access to, Dunlap said. The purpose is not to single Wilton out but to set aside a time and place to share this information.

The Wilton group plans to participate in the March for Violence Free Communities to be held in Farmington on Saturday and do a march in Wilton this summer.

The Saturday march is sponsored by Peace In Our Families, a group formed in the mid-1990s to counteract high rates of domestic assault/abuse and child abuse, Judy Rawlings of SAVES said Tuesday. The group promotes violence-free communities where relationships are safe for all individuals, she said.

Those who attend the Wilton training May 1 may sign up and participate in the Wilton Community Group, Terry said.

Terry is also available to offer training to anyone interested. She may be reached at 778-9522.

SAVES helpline number, 1-800-871-7741, is a 24-hour service that anyone can call, she said. The Abused Women’s Advocacy Project may be reached at 778-6107 or 1-800-559-2927.