Light Up the Night

Will you help us light up the night?

October is domestic violence awareness month and as a board member of the Women's Resource Center I wanted to ask the community to come together and join us for a night of light to honor all the victims of domestic violence. It is sometimes hard to believe that domestic violence happens in our beautiful seaside towns and that the services the center provides are so needed. The Women's Resource Center is a safe haven for women and families who are coping with domestic violence in all its forms. It can be easy to say that domestic violence does not exist in our community if you don't witness it yourself. But the statistics bear out that it does and it is getting worse.

Domestic violence does not always start with physical violence and bruising. Derogatory language aimed at making a person feel small and without value is often how it begins. Around the world at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime. In the US alone everyday more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends. Most think of domestic violence as a woman walking around with black eyes, broken bones or obvious bruises and they fail to see the woman who is yelled at every day and called horrible names, the woman who is threatened by violence and in fear that her children will be taken away, or the woman who has nowhere to go so she stays.

I want to change what victims and survivors see when they look at our Newport County Community. I want them to see light and therefore I ask you to please join me on October 29, 2018 at 6:00 PM on the steps of the Women's Resource Center (114 Touro St, Newport, RI) as we light 1 candle and pass that light to all that join us and together we walk to the Newport Courthouse in silence with our light. I ask that you walk for the 1 out of 3 women who have been abused in her lifetime, I ask that you walk for the children and silent witnesses to a women's suffering, I ask that you walk for the survivors of domestic violence who were able to get away and most importantly I ask you to walk for the women who feel afraid to come into the light. Please join me and the board of the Women's Resource Center to create such a bright light that all feel safe to come out of the darkness and know this community supports them.

Will you help us light up the night?

For more information on Women's Resource Center please go to http://www.wrcnbc.org/

Eilish FitzGerald Clarkson

Board Member Women's Resource Center