Community members, government officials and staff of The Domestic Violence Shelter gathered Monday at the Mansfield gazebo to help end domestic violence. The event launched recognition of October as National Domestic Violence Awareness month.
Kathy Ezawa, executive director at The Shelter, began the program with a moment of silence for James Mayer, former Richland county prosecutor who died in an apparent suicide Sept. 26.
“I’d like to welcome everyone, especially our community partners,” she said. “There are a group of community partners, specifically who are funded by state and national grants that work together on domestic violence. Those groups include the Mansfield Police Department, the Law Director’s Office, the Prosecutor’s Office, the SANE program at the hospital and the Domestic Violence Shelter.”
Mansfield Mayor Tim Theaker declined to read the city’s proclamation on supporting National Domestic Violence Awareness month. Instead, Theaker spoke from the heart and said, “In actuality, domestic violence is something that affects people, not just in October and not just one month a year. Domestic violence is something that we have to work on 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.”
Theaker then went on to encourage the various community partners and community members in attendance to actively work together to make home a safe place to live for people enduring domestic violence.
“Your home is a place for you to feel safe,” he said. “Domestic violence to some people is everywhere… everybody needs to work to see if we can eliminate or reduce domestic violence.”
Richland county commissioner Ed Olson read parts of their proclamation.
“The board of commissioners is declaring domestic violence awareness month for October and the principle reason why we do these things is to heighten awareness,” he said.
Olson then said domestic violence affects people of all races, ages, income levels and sexes.
“The crime of domestic violence violates an individual’s privacy, dignity, security, and humanity due to the systemic use of physical, emotional, sexual, physiological and economic control or abuse,” he said.
Research once showed that one in four women will go through domestic violence in her lifetime, but Ezawa said, “new research is indicating that one in three women will be a victim of domestic violence and 12.7 million people are physically abused, raped, or stalked every year. When you put in those numbers, it’s outrageous. That’s approximately the size of New York and LA put together in one year.”
Ezawa also talked about the national “No More” campaign and the thick blue circle symbol used to represent togetherness.
“The ‘No More’ symbol helps to bring greater awareness and action to end to domestic violence and sexual assault,” she said. “We want to join together not only with national organizations but with the community as well to say, ‘no more.’
Community members then went on to read different ‘no more’ statements like: “No more date rape;” “No more looking the other way;” and “No more treating victims like criminals.”
In the aftermath of the Ray Rice scandal, Ezawa noted the media frenzy and the national conversation on domestic violence. There have been domestic violence victims that have tweeted about #whyistayed and #whyileft.
“It’s really powerful when you hear their stories,” she said.
Community members signed a board with the ‘No More’ campaign logo in an effort to show solidarity on the community issue.
The Shelter also gives an Advocacy Service Award each year to a community member or an organization who are partners with The Shelter who, “commit their lives to standing with survivors and who work with the community to promote the message that violence against women will not be tolerated,” said Ezawa.
The award was presented to Herbert Ross, Mike Dick, and Paul Robinson who started the MOST (Men of Strength) Club. The club is made up of local young boys who are taught from an early age that all violence is wrong and violence against women is unacceptable.
“Today, I’m happy to say that we have a strong group of men in our community who are committed to working beside us and to ending violence,” said Ezawa.
Twitter: @angelnichole222
