October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month
In its recent monthly meeting, the Mountain Village Town Council approved a proclamation in partnership with the San Miguel Resource Center declaring October 2019 Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
During Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we urge every member of our community to be part of the solution today and every day. Support and believe survivors. Educate yourself and others. Model non-violent and respectful behavior through your everyday actions. Speak up about abuse. At the San Miguel Resource Center, we envision an equitable community in which every person has the right and the ability to be safe, respected, empowered and free from oppression, violence and the fear of violence, and we hope you join us in our work to make this vision a reality.
Domestic violence is a purposeful and systemic pattern of behavior aimed at gaining power and control over an intimate partner, and it includes physical, sexual, psychological, emotional and economic abuse.
Abusers use a range of tactics to frighten, terrorize, manipulate, hurt, humiliate, blame, often injure, and sometimes kill a current or former intimate partner.
More than 1 in 3 women and more than 1 in 4 men in the U.S. report having experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime and intimate partner violence accounts for 15 percent of all violent crime. Approximately 5 million children are exposed to domestic violence every year.
Domestic violence can happen to anyone regardless of employment or educational level, race or ethnicity, religion, marital status, physical ability, age, gender or sexual orientation.
All community members can and should work together to end relationship violence because domestic violence is prevalent in every community, even small ones, and has devastating consequences that can last a lifetime and cross generations.
The San Miguel Resource Center served 143 survivors of domestic violence and 13 child witnesses of domestic violence last year. To learn more about their services, please visit their website.
If you are being abused, please call the Resource Center's Toll-Free 24-Hour Helpline at (844) 816.3915 or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline: (800) 799-SAFE (7233). Online chat support is also available from the National Domestic Violence Hotline for those not able to make a phone call.
