Yesenia Jones | Correspondent
The Women’s Center will commemorate Domestic Violence Awareness Month by hosting numerous events during October to raise awareness and create engaging conversations around domestic violence. Here are some of their featured events:
Wednesday, October 18
Lunch and Learn: Domestic Violence in the South Asian Community
Women’s Center | 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
Kiran Inc., a nonprofit that provides resources to South Asian survivors of domestic violence, will be in the Women’s Center discussing the impacts of domestic violence on the South Asian community.
Wednesday, October 18
Faces In the Crowd: A Narrative Inquiry Into the Relationship Violence Experienced By Four Black College Women
Talley Ballroom | 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Dr. Lorraine Acker, the keynote speaker, will focus on the intersection of race, gender, and relationship violence within higher education. Dr. Acker will address how Black college women experience relationship violence, make meaning of their relationship violence experience and navigate campus resources related to relationship violence.
The Women’s Center welcomes students from all colleges and all identities to join in on their events for this month. The goal is to provide an intersectional and supportive environment for those who have endured domestic violence and people who would like to learn more about domestic violence.
“When we say that we want everyone to come we know that intersectionality is not just about marginalized identity groups,” said Angela Gay, graduate assistant at the Women’s Center. “It’s really about every single one of us because we all have a single piece of the oppressor in us. And so when we talk about domestic violence on college campuses, we also have to talk about what that looks like as far as what it means to be a person, and who holds dominant identities on a university campus that is also situated and historically created for those dominant identities. We want those dominant identities to be able to come in and express and be able to participate”.
According to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, there were 110 domestic violence related homicides in 2016. Of those, 73 of the victims were women and 37 were men. The D.C. Coalition of Domestic violence states that African American women are most likely to be affected by situations of domestic violence.
Leslie Barajas, a third-year studying accounting, said, “I think it’s important to have a Domestic Violence Awareness Month at NC State just so that we know that it does exist and we are not oblivious to the fact that it is very relevant. It doesn’t just happen to older married people but to people around our age as well.”
College students are one of the demographics that experience high rates of domestic violence. According to the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence, in 2014 over 40 percent of LGBTQ+ college students and 43 percent of heterosexual students reported that they had experienced interpersonal violence in their current relationships.
NC State and the greater Raleigh area offer a multitude of resources to support survivors of domestic violence. The Women’s Center offers a 24/7 sexual assault hotline and the Counseling Center offers on-call confidential counseling services. Student are encouraged to contact University Police in the case of an emergency. In the Raleigh area, InterAct is a nonprofit organization that provides support and refuge for women and children experiencing domestic violence.
For more information on resources, visit https://vptm.ehps.ncsu.edu/home/resources/.
