Let's heal our community
As we take time to reflect on our work this October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, this year feels different. Not just different because domestic abuse is markedly worse when you’re locked in with your abusive partner due to the pandemic. Not different because of the shift to remote services that many human service organizations, including Emerge, have had to make over the last year. But different because our community is beginning to think about how we can build meaningful change. Different, because our community’s systems have not addressed the safety of all survivors. Different, because we are no longer willing to stay quiet about the injustices we see in these systems every day, that magnify the harm against those we love – especially women of color.

These systems, like education, healthcare, criminal justice and law enforcement, human services, have pushed so many people into the invisible margins of our community. Our collective call for change and systemic accountability is weighing heavily on us – we must listen and heed the desperate call and need for change.

Emerge is not exempt from this responsibility. We acknowledge our role as an institutional non-profit and how we have operated in ways that do not acknowledge how the brokenness of our systems has left so many survivors in our community to find their own way. In fact, during the fourth week of October, you’ll read more about the introspective social justice work we have engaged in over the last six years to better ensure equitable treatment and visibility of all survivors.

Over the next four weeks, we invite you to join us in our work to sit in the hard truth that we have not acknowledged the full experiences of so many survivors. We can all use this opportunity to think deeply about the influence we have with others in our community. Emerge has partnered with several organizations to bring unheard voices to our educational campaign this October. These voices may challenge you, and you may feel a reaction. We invite you to observe your reaction and reflect upon it.

We invite you to help us use this not as an opportunity to foster division, but instead to see these conversations as a path to change, and ultimately to healing as a community.
The Historical Narrative That Normalizes Violence
Healing trauma is never an easy, painless process. But it must happen, and it requires creating space to hear the stories of those who have been ignored and actively silenced for far too long. This piece in the New York Times by Caroline Randall Williams, written earlier this year, helped us recognize the complexity of our historical narrative, and the need to acknowledge and address the many threads that are woven into our history, normalizing violence against Black women especially. Therefore, for DVAM this year, all of our educational articles will be framed from and inspired by Williams’ article.
Justice Begins Where Violence Toward Black Women Ends
This week, Emerge is honored to lift up the voice of Cecelia Jordan, who presents an important interrogation of what it means to be part of the Black community in a society that often does not see or speak to the undeniable truth that domestic and sexual violence are inherently connected to the experience of slavery in this country. Cecelia responds to Williams’ article and argues that until we take a deep, honest look at all of our institutionalized systems that disadvantage people of color, safety will remain an “unattainable luxury for those with Black skin.”
October Activities
Calendar of Activities
Download our calendar to find different opportunities to participate with Emerge and raise awareness about domestic abuse.
Use Your Platform to Raise Awareness
Use your social media platforms to raise awareness! Emerge has prepared a toolkit with information, facts and ways to promote Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Virtual Stuff-the-Bus
On October 4, we will hold a week-long Virtual Stuff-the-Bus event. We will collect donations that will go toward supplies for those experiencing domestic abuse.
Thank you to Suntran for their support in stuffing the bus together