Domestic Violence Awareness and Education Month event

Project Stand Up and the Wellness Office will host the kickoff of Domestic Violence Awareness and Education Month on Tuesday, October 1. UIU faculty, staff and students are asked to sign a domestic violence awareness banner located in the Student Center lower lobby at Fayette Campus from 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), one in four women and one in nine men experience severe intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner contact sexual violence, and/or intimate partner stalking with impacts such as injury, fearfulness, post-traumatic stress disorder. On a typical day, domestic violence hotlines nationwide receive over 20,000 calls.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month evolved from the Day of Unity in October 1981. The purpose of the Day of Unity was to connect advocates across the nation who were working to end violence against women. The Day of Unity soon became an entire week that was devoted to a range of activities that had a common theme, such as mourning those who have died because of domestic violence, celebrating those who have survived, and connecting those who work to end violence. In 1989, the U.S. Congress designated October of that year as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The goal of Project Stand Up is to address sexual, domestic, stalking and dating violence across all university campuses. Project Stand Up is supported by grant funding, which is awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women.