Penn Violence Prevention is organizing several events throughout October for Domestic Violence Awareness Month in an attempt to raise awareness about domestic violence on campus.
Domestic Violence Awareness Month is a national initiative to raise awareness around domestic violence, recognized by college campuses, community organizations, and cities, including Philadelphia. This month, PVP aims to inform campus community members about both what domestic violence is and how members of the community experience it.
“It’s really an opportunity for us to be aligned as a broader community and even nationally around our want to better support people who have experienced domestic violence,” Director of PVP Elise Scioscia said.
Scioscia said that the goal of the awareness initiative is to not only clarify what domestic violence is, but also provide methods to prevent it by giving students and community members the opportunity to learn about healthy relationships.
The awareness initiative began on Oct. 1 with a Paint Penn Purple Day. Students were encouraged to wear purple to support domestic violence awareness and shared photos of their purple outfits on social media. Awareness events also included trauma-informed yoga every Monday, a Drink of the Week collaboration with Williams Cafe, and a “How to Support a Survivor” workshop for students on Oct. 22.
College junior Helena Saven described the nature of advocacy in trauma-informed yoga as raising awareness and having open conversations, emphasizing that it is not necessarily a “marching in the streets” type of advocacy.
“I love trauma-informed yoga because while it’s not active prevention of domestic violence, it is raising awareness about the subject and encouraging community care. It makes advocacy seem really accessible,” Saven said.
Some events, such as the Drink of the Week collaboration, encouraged students to consider what “healthy love” looks like to them. The drink, titled the “Love Is … Latte” aimed to remind customers of WilCaf of attributes that make up healthy love and relationships.
Other programming, such as the “How to Support a Survivor” workshop or tabling done by PVP members, were created with the goal of teaching students how to respond when faced with a story of domestic violence.
“We know from campus climate surveys done prepandemic that [students who face domestic violence] are connecting with friends that they already trust,” PVP Associate Director of Prevention Education & Programming Julie Hastings said. “So one of the things we focus on is getting people trained on how to support friends who are coming to them and sharing that they’re in an unsafe or uncomfortable situation.”
Interim Penn President Larry Jameson released the results of the 2024 Higher Education Sexual Misconduct and Awareness survey on Monday. PVP and student organizations dedicated to violence prevention will take these new statistics into account when creating new programming for future semesters.
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