Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Uniting to End Domestic Violence and Intimate Partner Harm
Each October, CARE observes Domestic Violence Awareness/Action Month (DVAM). During this month, communities and advocacy organizations across the country connect with one another in a true sense of unity to end domestic violence for good. We invite you to support survivors of domestic violence, stand as an active ally, and participate in our offerings.
Reaching Across Cultures, Walls, & Borders 2024
DVAM 2024 highlighted connections between interpersonal, gender-based violence and structural, institutional violence. We encouraged our community to consider how safety and wellbeing beyond our current systems and single narratives could look and feel.
CARE focused on how the systems of incarceration and immigration impact survivors—living at the intersections of race, class, gender, documentation status, language access—and how we can communicate interculturally and in ways that challenge separation, isolation, and inequities. When we work to promote justice and equity for survivors of interpersonal violence, this work of public health impacts and greatly benefits all community members.
DVAM 2024 was an invitation to imagine the different ways our world could be: How might we change and transform the systems that impact survivors and our communities? What seeds do you want to plant in the world? How do your hands–our collective hands–our actions, and our dreams heal? What do you think justice and freedom look and feel like?
These Hands Heal 2023
During DVAM 2023, we facilitated CARE’s inaugural These Hands Heal on Purple Thursday. These Hands Heal was inspired by a campaign started on college campuses in 1996 called These Hands Don’t Hurt as a way to raise awareness about domestic violence and sexual assault. UCSC CARE decided to name our DVAM event These Hands Heal as a way to focus on actions we can take together to heal our communities.
Community members participated in Mindful Movement (trauma-informed, restorative yoga), played with therapy dogs, engaged with our campus and community partners, painted handprints, and answered the question: How do your hands heal?
