Between 600,000 and six million women in the United States are victims of domestic violence. One in four American women will experience domestic violence in their lives. And every nine seconds a woman is beaten or assaulted in the U.S.
“This is a serious topic that we as a community need to address,” Sara Didier, event planner of Portland State’s Women’s Resource Center, said. “Even though we don’t talk about it, domestic violence affects students at Portland State and in Portland.”
To promote October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, members of the Women’s Resource Center have sponsored and held a series of events for public awareness.
From 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 27 at the WRC, the Women of Color Action Team will present an open dialogue in which all women of color will have the opportunity to talk about domestic violence in their communities. Following this event, a rally and candlelight vigil will take place in the Smith Memorial Student Union in remembrance of the victims of domestic violence.
Brianna Winkler, who, along with Meghan Haddock and Didier, is coordinating this event, explained that the dialogue holds a deep significance for her.
“As a survivor of interpersonal violence, holding this kind of event has great personal meaning to me and it has provided a constructive means of focusing my energy,” Winkler said.
The WRC helps all women and feminist-friendly people with academic and personal problems while providing them with a place for study and socialization.
Jessica Amo, assistant director at the center, helped put October’s events together.
“I am always motivated to do this work by the inspirational students that I work with. I see their incredible commitment to maintaining their academic and professional goals in the face of some really big barriers,” Amo said. “When I see people facing those barriers to do what they need to do, I am inspired to keep on working to help them.”
Malika Edden, who is co-coordinating the open dialogue along with Tonya Jones, was hired at the WRC as a graduate assistant for the student empowerment project, and was familiarized with domestic violence as a small child.
“When I was a little girl I lived in Washington and my mother was a crisis line volunteer. As a kid I knew that domestic violence was an issue but I didn’t fully understand it,” Edden recalled. “As an adult, I became aware that it’s an issue that just affects so many of us. I want to make sure that no one I know or love, or don’t even know, goes through domestic violence with a partner.”
A wide variety of people use the center, Edden said.
“We have first-year students that want a place to congregate. We have returning women students who are older and want to study. We have students that have capstone projects. We have male students who use the space and want to participate with women’s advocates,” Edden said. “It’s a really interesting mix.”
The purpose of the open dialogue on Oct. 27 is for people to open up more about their experiences.
“I would like for people to feel heard. I would like for them to feel like they were able to learn something about a new community,” Edden said. “I hope that they walk away feeling empowered and feeling like they can make a difference in their community.”
Winkler wants the public to leave the events of Oct. 27 with a new understanding of domestic violence.
“Ultimately, it would be great if people could walk away knowing that domestic violence is a prevalent issue in our community and that it affects a lot of people, even though it isn’t often talked about,” Winkler said. “It would also be really cool if we were able to inspire others to take action, whether it be next year, during October or any time at all.”