Throughout the month of October, the Office of Health Promotion is hosting programs and events to raise awareness about relationship violence in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Working in collaboration with the Office of Health Promotion are the Peer Educators Encouraging Healthy Relationships and Sexuality (PEEHRS), It’s On Us student campus ambassadors, Counseling Center, Office of Student Assistance, Fraternity and Sorority Affairs and Vera House Inc.
The Hall of Languages is lit up in purple to commemorate Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October.
As done annually in honor of this month, and as part of continued efforts to raise visibility and awareness, the Hall of Languages will be illuminated purple, the designated color for Domestic Violence Awareness Month, each evening as part of the “Shine the Light on Domestic Violence” statewide campaign.
Throughout the month, the PEEHRS will be tabling in the Schine Student Center and dining centers providing students with educational activities.
“Engaging on a peer-to-peer level creates the opportunity to have open and honest communication in the community without the fear of being talked at nor talked down to,” says Teagan Peacock ’18, a student in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a member of PEEHRS. “Talking with friends and peers helps break down stigmas and biases later, helping create lasting and meaningful change on a larger scale.”
The month will conclude with the Clothesline Project from Oct. 23-29 in Panasci Lounge, Schine Student Center. T-shirt making for this project will take place in 302 Schine from Monday, Oct. 23, to Wednesday, Oct. 25, and again Saturday, Oct. 28, to Sunday, Oct. 29. If offices are interested in hosting T-shirt making in their own spaces, they can contact Michelle Goode, health promotion specialist for sexual and relationship violence prevention in the Office of Health Promotion, at mlgoode@syr.edu.
During Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the It’s On Us student ambassadors ask campus offices and departments, as well as residence halls, to participate in the SU Goes Purple Decorating Contest. Offices must register by Oct. 23, and judging takes place from Monday, Oct. 23 to Friday, Oct. 27.
Student organizations or campus offices looking to get more involved can also request Hands Against Violence (HAV) banner making kits. The kits will provide all the tools for groups to create their own HAV pledge and to hang the completed banner in their spaces to show support for people who have been impacted by interpersonal violence.
For more information or questions about Domestic Violence Awareness Month, please contact Goode at mlgoode@syr.edu.
