October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. A time to increase awareness about the serious issue of Domestic Violence.
Fight Against Domestic Violence is an organization which “provides education, awareness, outreach, and financial resources to the domestic violence victims and their community.” They’re behind the #TakeAStand17 movement this month, encouraging all to stand up against Domestic Violence.
I’ve signed up with FADV as an Activist Ambassador, committing to taking actions every month to help spread education – and figured that I might as well start doing some of that through this blog! So scattered through the rest of the month I’ll be sharing some information, stories, and resources.
There are a lot of different kinds of abuse, and often more than one form of abuse is present. Intimate partner violence is rampant – the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) has some statistics – they note that in the United States alone an average of 20 people are physically abused by an intimate partners every minute. 1 in 2 women, and 1 in 4 men have been victims of some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime.
And you have to imagine that these numbers don’t include those cases that go unreported and unrecorded….
The US National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or 1-800-787-3224 (TTY).
Eclectic Alli 
As you may recall, domestic violence is an issue near and dear to my heart. Last year I did an entire month on Abuse and included domestic violence in a few of the month’s posts.
I think one of the things we need to do is to start telling the stories and if victims will come forth and tell their own stories, they will be so much more powerful and people will see that it happens to everyone, regardless of age, gender, religion, financial resources, etc. And people need to stop saying “why doesn’t she/he just leave?” It’s not easy. Not at all easy.
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I remember that month… it’s such an important topic to keep talking about and, yes, to share stories — as with many things, sharing the stories can help remove some of the stigma that victims face.
One of the things I’m hoping to get out this month is tips for those who know someone in an abusive situation as to what they CAN do to help support their friends without the unhelpful “just leave them” kind of statements. And, as you said, people need to stop asking “Why didn’t they just leave.” It’s so not easy, and there is so much wrapped up into the situations.
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