Since January, members of campus and community organizations have been brainstorming a new approach to raise awareness about issues surrounding domestic violence for October’s National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This year’s project has been designed differently from past years’ in hopes that more people will be reached, Women’s Center Office Coordinator Lori Brown said.
In past years, she said, the University has held workshops and presentations during the month. But those projects have tended to “preach” to students, and people who showed up for the events were often already well-educated about the subject.
“We wanted to stop preaching to the choir,” she said.
She hopes that this year’s artistic approach will reach a wider range of people, she said.
Project Coordinator and Americorps member Jessica Kuehn will play music focusing on resistance to violence against women today in the EMU Amphitheater from 1:30-3 p.m. Resistance to violence is a strong theme in the music of many popular artists, such as Tracy Chapman, Pearl Jam, Ani Difranco and Jane’s Addiction, and their music will be featured this afternoon, according to the Women’s Center.
Organizers will also host a reception and community arts show, featuring a series of banners designed to provide information about dating violence in an artistic way. The moving display was organized by the University Coalition Against Partner Violence and the Emerald Valley Quilters Guild. Ten campus and community organizations also helped design the banners.
Viki West of Womenspace and the Emerald Valley Quilters Guild, said the quilters were asked to translate the UCAP’s designs onto the fabric. She said it was challenging, but knowing that the banners will raise awareness made all the hard work worth it.
Organizers will unveil the banners tomorrow evening at a reception in the Adell-McMillan Gallery of the EMU from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and they will be displayed until Oct. 19.
Brown said she is excited about the banners because they provide a creative way to reach people on a deeper, more personal level.
“(The banners’) message connects to their lives,” she said.
The banner display will rotate to different campus areas such as the Student Recreation Center and law school and throughout the community until mid-November, Brown said. Several groups were involved in the banner project including the Women’s Center, Student Life, Residence Life and the Counseling Center.
T-shirts made by victims of violence will also be displayed along with the banners in the gallery. The T-shirts are part of the local and international Clothesline Project, which is designed to create a memorial to survivors of violence.
Following the reception, Absolute Improv will perform “Envisioning a World Without Violence” in the EMU Ballroom.
Brown added that many students don’t think domestic violence information pertains to them. The highest rate of domestic violence, however, happens to women ages 19-29. This means students on campus are definitely affected, she said, adding that college students are especially vulnerable.
“Students are often on their own for the first time and pulled away from their support at home,” she said.
It is important for students to be aware of their own relationships and to be able to support a friend who has experienced domestic violence, she added.
Student Judicial Affairs Director Chris Loschiavo, who is a member of the Alliance for Sexual Assault Prevention, said it is sometimes assumed that domestic violence only affects people who are married.
“Violence occurs between boyfriends and girlfriends, between gays and lesbians,” he said. “It’s important for students to know where resources are available.”