While we at Safe Havens think that every month is a good time to raise awareness about domestic violence, October is officially Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM). We need to raise awareness now more than ever: according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, about 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner. On a typical day, local domestic violence hotlines receive approximately 19,159 calls, approximately 13 calls every minute.
We hope you will join Safe Havens in raising awareness, promoting a better understanding of domestic abuse and how it affects individuals as well as entire communities, and letting people know that there are services available and open to support them. The more that survivors hear from people in their communities, faith-based or otherwise, that abuse of any kind is unacceptable and that there is help, the more likely they will speak up and reach out. We all have a critical role to play in supporting survivors of abuse, so the more we learn, the more we can help.
Check out some resources Safe Havens has created that you are free to use and distribute to your congregations and communities (you can download them below):
Newsletter/Bulletin Inserts
Infographic on Domestic Violence (image on the left)