Domestic Violence Awareness Month
National Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM), is held in October to acknowledge, support and be a helping voice to domestic violence survivors.
“Domestic Violence Awareness Month is a month where different initiatives take place to bring awareness to relationship violence,” Title IX Coordinator Tasha Clark said.
This month serves to advocate for change as well as educating individuals to look out for any signs that could help prevent further victimization.
“Domestic Violence Awareness Month is not only important to college students, but to the whole community,” The Purple Door intern Melisa Avalos, senior social work major, said. “It is important to spread awareness, educate the public on the resources available and advocate for change.”
Domestic violence can affect anyone regardless of gender, age, race and those 18 to 25 years old may at some point experience some kind of violence within relationships. At Texas A&M University – Kingsville (TAMUK), Title IX holds events like webinars and the annual “In their Footsteps” event to bring awareness across campus.
Title IX aids in different ways like talking about safety planning, connecting students to the University or Kingsville police department, connecting them with counseling either through Student Health and Wellness or The Purple Door and to advocacy. If anyone needs to switch halls, classes or set up mutual orders of no contact, a university document that would require students to not contact each other on campus can be drawn up.
Title IX can also get students information on how to contact individuals like the Legal Aid or advocacy to talk about protective orders as well. That goes through the court system so Title IX would try to connect students with somebody that has more legal expertise on how to do that. If a student does get a protective order, that is something that you can provide to university police so they can keep that on file.
Along with Title IX, there are other resources available for students around campus and the community like The Purple Door and Student Health and Wellness.
The Purple Door is a private, non-profit agency that provides services and resources to victims of both domestic and sexual violence.
“It does not matter how long ago the victimization occurred, victim advocates, legal advocates or case workers are there to support victims,” The Purple Door intern and social work major Yara Green-Jordan said.
The Purple Door’s services can range from shelter, transportation, safety planning, legal advocacy, free counseling, 24-hour hotline, casework (referrals to other services in the community), parenting classes, hospital accompaniment, support groups and more. It depends on what the victim prefers or needs.
“When I list [signs of abuse], there’s a lot of unhealthy relationship traits and we see that a lot in movies, things that are sometimes passed off as normal, and certainly just because you see a couple of them does not necessarily mean it’s an abusive relationship,” Clark said.
It’s also important to know what warning signs to look out for.
“What you are looking for in healthy relationships is open communication and respect and knowing how to talk through problems, so it does not get to a situation where people lose their temper,” Clark said.
Students are encouraged to report incidents.
“[Domestic violence] is a very important issue. We want to highlight what some of these warning signs are, because when somebody is in a relationship, it can be difficult to leave,” Clark said. “It is an issue that we want to look out for within the community and provide support to anyone that reaches out.”