Wellness Wednesdays: Wear purple for Domestic Violence Awareness Month on Thursday, Oct. 22
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and Counseling Services, Campus Activities Board (CAB) and the Peer Wellness Educators are planning two events on Wear Purple Day, which is Thursday, Oct. 22.
Counseling Services encourages people on campus to wear purple on Thursday, Oct. 22. From 12-4 p.m. on Oct. 22, CAB, Peer Wellness Educators and Counseling Services will have activities and giveaways related to domestic violence awareness outside of Gerety Hall. These events and activities will be held alongside the Things for Thursday giveaway event. Throughout the day, there will also be a social media contest for Wear Purple Day.
Wear purple to show support for domestic violence survivors
Wear Purple Day is a day to honor survivors and raise awareness of domestic violence, dating violence and signs of both healthy and unhealthy relationships. In the United States, one in four women and one in seven men have experienced some form of severe violence from an intimate partner. In addition, there are many people that have been in a relationship at some point in their lives that was unhealthy in some way.
Domestic violence is an important topic on college campuses, as young women between the ages of 16 and 24 experience the highest rates of intimate partner violence, almost triple the national average. However, domestic violence can happen to anyone of any identity by any abuser of any identity.
Wearing purple on Thursday, Oct. 22, says that the people at Salve Regina does not tolerate violence on campus in any form. Wearing purple says that the University’s community believes everyone deserves a healthy, affirming, respectful and supportive relationship. Wearing purple says that the campus is committed to believing a survivor’s experiences.
Social media contest
To let any Salve Regina domestic violence survivors know how much the campus supports them, Counseling Services is also hosting a social media contest on Thursday, Oct. 22. During that day, individuals can take a picture of themselves or a group — a team, class, office or Webex meeting — wearing purple.
Just tag Counseling Services’ Instagram and use the hashtag #SalveGoesPurpleagainstDV, or send in a direct message of a photo to Counseling Services for re-posting.
Counseling Services will re-post all the photos it gets on its account to flood social media with support for survivors. Participants will then be entered into a drawing for a raffle prize for a local gift card!
Signs of domestic violence
- Physical violence: hitting, pushing, shoving, slapping, etc.
- Sexual violence: forcing someone to have sex, refusing to use protection and using guilt or threats to manipulate someone into having sex.
- Financial abuse: taking someone’s money, misusing someone’s credit to affect their credit rating and force them to incur debt, refusing to allow them to have a job, questioning their purchases and bank statements and tactics to cause someone to be fired from their job.
- Emotional abuse: put downs, insults, name-calling, jealousy and body shaming.
- Digital abuse: threatening to post sexual videos or pictures, searching your phone and computer, forcing you to share passwords and controlling what you post on social media.
- Psychological abuse: gaslighting, threatening to hurt loved ones, threatening to out someone’s LGBTQ+ identity and threatening to report someone’s undocumented immigration status.
While survivors often feel like it is their fault, abuse is about power and control — and abuse is never a survivor’s fault. There is also never an excuse for abusive behavior. For example, being drunk is not an excuse for violence. Another example is that being in a relationship or previously having sex does not give consent to future sexual encounters. People have a right to say no to sex at any point, regardless of relationship status.
Domestic violence can affect anyone of any gender in any type of dating relationship. Intersectionality of different marginalized and oppressed identities often makes it harder for survivors to access resources and to manage the multiple oppressions, forms of violence and threats.
Abuse thrives on shame and secrecy, and abusers have many tactics to silence survivors through threats and violence. The more people at Salve Regina talk about these issues, the more that survivors know that they will be believed and supported. It is also important to support survivors through equitable, just access to resources and ensure there are policies that create a safe campus that does not tolerate violence.
In these ways, everyone on campus all play a part in ending domestic violence.
Additional resources
- Click here to learn more about domestic violence.
- If someone is worried about a friend who might be in an abusive dating relationship, check out this article on six steps to support a survivor
- Call Counseling Services at 401-341-2919 or email them at counselingservices@salve.edu for free, confidential counseling via video-conferencing on Cisco Webex to full-time undergraduate students.
- Domestic violence is a violation of Salve Regina’s Sexual Harassment and Anti-Discrimination Policy, and under Title IX, students and employees have rights for accommodations for safety, as well as to take formal judicial action against their abuser. Emily Diomandes, assistant dean of students and Title IX coordinator, can review an individual’s rights and resources and offer supportive measures. Diomandes can be reached at (401) 341-2640 or emily.diomandes@salve.edu.
- Safety and Security is also a resource that can assist with safety measures — such as no-contact orders, liaising with local police to file police reports and press criminal charges and other safety concerns. They can be reached at (401) 341-2325.
- Women’s Resource Center is a local resource in Newport that is also free and confidential and open to anyone, for those who may wish a resource off-campus. They have a 24 hour hotline: 1-800-494-8100, offer free counseling and they can assist with police and court matters, such as helping obtain an Order of Protection and filing police report. Call 401-846-5263 for more information.
Mariska Hargitay is founder of the Joyful Heart Foundation, which works to end sexual assault and domestic violence, and star of “Law and Order: SVU” is quoted saying, “Sexual assault and domestic violence are difficult things to talk about. Talk about them anyway.”
It’s important to get the conversation going at Salve Regina of what healthy and unhealthy relationships consist of, have difficult conversations with friends someone may be concerned about and be active bystanders-saying to everyone on campus that violence is not to be tolerated in any form.
Article written by Meghan Shea. Shea is a licensed clinical social worker in Counseling Services at Salve Regina. Shea has over ten years of experience providing counseling to children, adolescents and college students and is a bilingual/Spanish-speaking social worker.
This article is part of a regular series called Wellness Wednesdays on SALVEtoday. Check out more posts related to health and wellness here.
