Domestic Violence Awareness Month Memorial Vigil on October 1st at the State Capitol

The Spark

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence was founded in 1976. Since then, the organization provides free and confidential direct services to victims and survivors of domestic violence in all 67 counties of the Commonwealth.

“We provide technical assistance and ensure that every local domestic violence program that is one of the programs that PCADV funds is providing equal services to all survivors. We ensure that services are survivor centered and trauma informed. And there are incredible advocates at all of the 59 local domestic violence programs. PCADV provides training to all of them, as well as to the volunteers so that we can ensure that every survivor in Pennsylvania is getting quality services from their local domestic violence center, “said Lauren Duff, Director of Communications for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Every October, PCADV recognizes Domestic Violence Awareness month and works hard to raise awareness about what domestic violence looks like, how to recognize it, and highlight the work of advocates that work in direct service with survivors every day.

According to Duff, abuse comes in many different forms.

“Many abusive relationships don't start out with physical violence. I mean, look, more like in the beginning, even a relationship that might be too good to be true might feel like love bombing, which is a term that that we use to describe when somebody really, like overwhelms the other person with all of these grand gestures of love and appreciation. But once they have established their relationship, things may change. They may start to isolate them from friends and family. They may start to use emotional and psychological tactics of abuse, such as putdowns and calling them names, humility, humiliating them in front of others. They might kind of reverse the blame of the abuse and make the victim or the survivor feel guilty for the abuse rather than taking accountability for their own actions. Things such as that. Another thing to look out for that we don't talk about a lot is financial abuse. So, if the abusive partner wants to control all of the money, they only let their partner have an allowance. They might hide assets, or they might run up debt in the partner's name, ruin their credit. Anything that they can make them do. So, anything they can do to make the survivor financially dependent on them is a tactic that a lot of abusers will use in order to keep the survivor in that abusive relationship because they no longer have the financial means to leave and go off on their own. In fact, financial abuse occurs and 99% of abusive relationships.”

Domestic violence also impacts those in the LGBTQ+ community and some men as well.

“1 in 3 women, 1 in 4 men and nearly half of LGBTQ individuals that will experience domestic violence in their lifetime. And so, you know, it's important when we think about domestic violence. I know I mentioned that like men can also be victims of domestic violence. Women are the most often thought of type of victim of domestic violence. But folks that are in LGBTQ relationships are also they also experience domestic violence and at even higher rates than other folks tend to. So that's something that we want to talk about, that we want to highlight and also to highlight that all of the member programs for peace are there to serve survivors of every gender, of every sexual orientation. It doesn't matter who they are. It doesn't matter who their abuser is.”

Oct 1, the PCADV will host an Domestic Violence Awareness Month Memorial Vigil at the capitol. They will be recognizing the 199 individuals who lost their lives to domestic violence in Pennsylvania last year. The event begins at 6 p.m.

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