CARE to Stop Violence hosted a Purple Lights Night event in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month on Wednesday, to help students recognize signs of relationship violence and connect them with resources.
The event, held at Memorial Chapel, included snacks, arts and crafts and activities that provided students with awareness of relationship abuse and consent. The event also collected donations for D.C. SAFE , a 24/7 domestic violence intervention agency in Washington, D.C.
Grace Bordreau, the program director for CARE, said the event began in 2017. It continues to be an annual tradition to show that the CARE staff are here for survivors on campus.
“We feel that it’s very important to educate the campus community about relationship violence and to make the campus community more aware, so that they are able to identify the signs of abuse,” Bordreau said.
CARE, which stands for Campus Advocates Respond and Educate to Stop Violence, provides free support services to students affected by sexual assault, relationship violence, stalking and sexual harrassment. Its services include a 24/7 crisis line, advocacy, therapy and educational training programs.
“We are specifically providing resources on how to identify relationship violence, and then how to get help for yourself or a friend if they are in a potentially abusive or dangerous situation,” Bordreau said.
Shoshana Samuels, a junior physiology and neurobiology major and CARE volunteer, said that people between the ages 18 and 24 are most likely to deal with any sort of power-based violence.
“So it’s really important that our campus has something that can support survivors of any sort of power-based violence,” Samuels said. “An event especially like this, we can get the word out.”
Samuels presented the TALK acronym at her table for the event, which is an acronym that shows how to answer when someone discloses information that they were sexually assaulted. The acronym stands for thanking someone for telling you, asking how you can help, listening without judgment and continuing to support them, Samuels said.
Mahima Ampani, a freshman architecture major, said she attended the event after seeing it on her Instagram because she wanted to support domestic awareness.
“One thing I learned [through the event] is that sometimes it’s hard to identify whether you’re being abused or not, and it’s important to know the clues in order to protect yourself and others,” Ampani said.
Bordreau said she hopes the campus community can learn to identify the different types of abuse and understand that CARE is a resource to help them or someone they know.
CARE provides confidential and non-confidential resources for students on and off-campus, Bordreau said.
“We are here for survivors, but we’re also here for supporters,” Bordreau said.