A representative from the Battered Women and Children Shelter will attend the event.
By Jon Hernandez
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
For National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the office of student life will conduct Wear It on Your Sleeve, an event to bring awareness about relationship violence noon-2 p.m. Oct. 23 in the Fiesta Room of Loftin Student Center.
Students will be provided cardboard shaped like T-shirts, which they can decorate and paint positive messages on for people in violent relationships.
“The students will paint a positive message on the front of the shirt or something they would tell someone that is in an abusive relationship,” Bianca Sapet, coordinator of student success, said Sept 19.
After shirts are decorated, shirts will be passed out to other students in the Fiesta Room to spread awareness.
Statistics from the shelter and the Texas Council on Family Violence will be provided on back of the shirt.
National statistics and a hotline number will also be provided on the back.
Andrea Garcia, volunteer support and community relations specialist for Family Violence Prevention Services and the Battered Women and Children Shelter, will attend the event to work with students.
“We do our best to be at the volunteer events,” Garcia said Sept 24.
Women ages 18 to 34 generally experience the highest rates of intimate partner violence, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
“Most people don’t realize they’re in a bad relationship,” Garcia said. “Relationship violence just doesn’t mean physical. It can be mental, financial, emotional. It can escalate.”
The shelter provides housing, food and legal aid.
There is an on-site primary medical and dental clinic and school for pre-K through fifth grade.
Counseling is offered for women and children escaping abusive relationships.
The shelter can house around 180 women and children.
“Every situation is different. Some stay one to three months; some stay six.” Garcia said.
Men do not stay at the shelter but are provided housing in a different location.
“Using resources we know in the community, we find a safe place for them to stay,” Garcia said.
Lunch will be provided for the event.
For more information, call Sapet at 210-486-0125.
For more information on family violence prevention services, call 210-930-3669.