Support for DVAM

[Published September 19, 2025]

TOWARDS THRIVING:

YOUR NEWSLETTER FROM

THE IDAHO COALITION AGAINST

SEXUAL & DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

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Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM)

The power of poetry in raising awareness & engaging communities

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM). Advocates play a key role in preventing and responding to domestic violence (DV) by providing information, resources, financial support, legal assistance, and more to folks who are experiencing abuse. However, advocates face many barriers in their work to end gender-based abuse. These barriers lead to immeasurable issues for survivors who are seeking help and healing.

One barrier that many advocates and survivors of abuse continue to face is a lack of social awareness.

In order to overcome this barrier and to ultimately stop the cycles and systems of domestic violence that exist in today's world, we must develop a collective understanding about what domestic abuse is. And not just a definition—also an intuitive understanding that is formed from our personal connections and survivor-centered storytelling. Through this awareness, we can create a safer world for all of us.

That's why we choose to uplift poetry this DVAM! We've found several poems on social media that evoke personal connections and embody survivor-centered storytelling, and we want to repost some of our favorites throughout October.

Beyond our hope for these poems to recognize and honor the survivorship of victims, it is our hope that these poems can get the attention of our community members, garner more engagement for DVAM, and support our beloved advocates in their awareness-building work to end domestic abuse.

Please connect with us on social media to stay tuned for the poetry we'll be sharing about DV throughout October:

🔗 Click here for our TikTok 🔗

🔗 Click here for our Instagram 🔗

🔗 Click here for our Facebook 🔗

This is No "Little Fight"

We uplift the statement recently offered by Sanctuary for Families:

"On Monday, President Trump stood at the Museum of the Bible in Washington and dismissed domestic violence as 'a little fight with the wife,' suggesting that offenses 'that take place in the home' should not be counted as crimes.

Rather than walking back this dangerous statement, the White House doubled down the next day. During a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed: 'He wasn’t referring to crime. That’s exactly the point he was making. The president is saying, in fact, is that these crimes will be made up and reported as a crime to undermine the great work that the federal task force is doing to reduce crime in Washington, D.C.'

These attempts to minimize domestic violence are dangerous and uninformed.

For far too long, domestic violence was treated as a private matter, kept behind closed doors, ignored by law enforcement, and excused by society. That silence left survivors — mostly women and children — without protection, justice, or support."

🔗 Click here for the full statement by Sanctuary for Families 🔗

Sharing DV Counts Data

The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) hosts an event called DV Counts, which is a one-day, unduplicated count of adults and children seeking domestic violence services in the United States. This annual survey documents the number of people who sought services in a single 24-hour period. This event took place earlier this month on September 10th, and now advocates across the nation will upload data to build a comprehensive report:

All survey responses are due by 11:59pm EDT on Friday, October 24th, 2025.

In Idaho alone, there are over 20 programs that will be sharing their insight and information from DV Counts!

Would you like a guide for how to submit the data you collected for DV Counts?

Do you need the website page to share your DV Counts information?

Do you want to ask questions or make a request?

Please feel warmly invited to utilize support by contacting our team, or messaging NNEDV directly:

🔗 Click here to share DV Counts data and get support 🔗

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