See the Triumph
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • See the Triumph Collections
  • Participate in Our Research
  • Volunteer with See the Triumph
  • The Origins of See the Triumph
  • About our Research
  • Terms of Use
  • Resources for more Information
  • See the Triumph Workbooks
  • See the Triumph Healing Arts Workshops
  • See the Triumph Survivor Advocacy Training Program
  • Contact Us

In the Words of Survivors: The Importance of Education about Domestic Violence

10/4/2013

 
By Christine Murray, See the Triumph Co-Founder

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. We urge everyone to devote some time this month to raising awareness about domestic violence, including educating others.

Why are education and awareness important? We heard over and over again from the survivors in our studies about the importance of education in preventing future domestic violence. We heard many important reasons why this education is so critical, including the following five ways that greater knowledge about domestic violence is so powerful:

Reason #1: Knowledge helps you examine patterns in your own life to identify potential risk factors for abuse.

One participant said, “Find out how an abuser and victim are created. Find out what healthy families and relationships truly are. Be brave enough to look at yourself and your family honestly and deal with the ugliness of dysfunction.”

Reason #2: We need to educate young people to help them create healthy relationships from the start.

The following participant quote highlights how early intimate partner violence can occur: “One thing I would love to see done on college campuses is more awareness about domestic violence, because so much of it occurs during the college years, whether they live on campus or not. So much of it occurs then.” And, we know that dating violence can occur even earlier than college, so early education is essential.

Reason #3: Through education, we can learn the difference between what may seem “normal” to us and what is safe and healthy.

One of our study participants said, “I came from an extremely abusive family.  I was actually abused as a child but I allowed my family to be in my life and to continue.  And not just my parents but also my brothers and sisters. They were as children trained to be abusers and they abused me for a long time, many years.  It took me until I was in my 30’s to finally realize what was going on and to get to break away.” Most of us learn a lot about how to be in relationships with others from our experiences in our families-of-origin, and it can be difficult to determine how healthy those patterns are without the ability to think critically about them.

Reason #4: By educating ourselves, we can educate others.

When people do not understand the dynamics of intimate partner violence, they may be more unprepared to help when someone they know is being abused. For example, one participant said, “I think the biggest driving force for me is that I had done enough studying and had enough exposure to dysfunctional situations, that I knew the only way to give them a chance was to leave and to break the cycle.  So, and again, in my frame or my circle of people there was no understanding of that.”

Reason #5: Knowledgeable communities provide more useful resources.

The following quote provides one example of the need for knowledge within community resources: “I just think there should be more resources in rural areas. But there’s not a lot of that...I don’t even know if I could have gone to the health center or something that we have. There should be more knowledge.” Although this participant is referring specifically to resources in rural communities, it is likely that every community has areas for improving the resources available to survivors. By understanding the dynamics of intimate partner violence, these needed resources can be more easily identified and developed.

For all of these reasons, we encourage all readers to take time this month (and every month!) to raise awareness about domestic violence!

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    About Intimate Partner Violence
    About Intimate Partner Violence
    Advocacy
    Ambassadors
    Children
    Churches
    College Campuses
    Cultural Issues
    Domestic Violence Awareness Month
    Financial Recovery
    How To Help A Friend
    Human Rights
    Human-rights
    Immigrants
    International
    Media
    Overcoming Past Abuse
    Overcoming-past-abuse
    Parenting
    Prevention
    Resources For Survivors
    Safe Relationships Following Abuse
    Schools
    Selfcare
    Self-care
    Sexual Assault
    Sexuality
    Social Justice
    Social-justice
    Stigma
    Supporting Survivors
    Survivor Quotes
    Survivor-quotes
    Survivor Stories
    Teen Dating Violence
    Trafficking
    Transformative-approaches

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • See the Triumph Collections
  • Participate in Our Research
  • Volunteer with See the Triumph
  • The Origins of See the Triumph
  • About our Research
  • Terms of Use
  • Resources for more Information
  • See the Triumph Workbooks
  • See the Triumph Healing Arts Workshops
  • See the Triumph Survivor Advocacy Training Program
  • Contact Us