By Jamie Kerner
Students and community members raised purple lights in the air together, paying tribute to domestic violence survivors as a close to Purple Light Night, hosted by CARE to Stop Violence on Oct. 17.
“You are not alone. We see you. We believe you. Help is available when you’re ready,” junior biology major Shreya Singh said, leading audience members through the tribute and allowing the crowd to repeat each line after her.
Campus Advocates Respond and Educate to Stop Violence (CARE) is a free and confidential resource on campus to help victims of domestic abuse and relationship violence.
The Purple Light Night event aimed to honor survivors and victims of relationship violence, featuring a panel of speakers and student spoken word performances.
According to CARE Outreach Liaison Carly Cottone, Purple Light Night was started in 2007 by the Covington Domestic Violence Task Force, which designated purple lights as a way to publicly show support for domestic violence victims and survivors.
Students, speakers, performers and community members attended Purple Light Night. The venue was decorated with purple lights, tablecloths and balloons to bolster the theme of honoring victims and survivors.
The event’s attendance was greater than anticipated, and extra rows of chairs were set up in the audience to accommodate the crowd.
Attendees received a free Purple Light Night T-shirt if they posted on social media using the hashtag #PurpleLightNightUMD or a made a donation of any amount to the Victim Assistance Fund, which helps to cover financial costs that relationship abuse victims face.
Freshman letters and sciences student Marshaè Cappaninee and senior Spanish major Cecilia Franck performed spoken word poetry. 21-year-old relationship abuse survivor Celeste Iroha also shared her story with the audience.
The majority of the evening consisted of a question and answer panel moderated by CARE, followed by an open panel to allow audience members to ask their own questions. The event’s three panelists were Celia Brickerd, a lead therapist at CARE; Cortney Fisher, a UMD criminology and criminal justice professor and the assistant director of the Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Samantha Williams, an investigator in UMD’s Office of Civil Rights and Sexual Misconduct.
Before opening up the panel for audience questions, the CARE moderator asked panelists what people can do to prevent relationship violence in their communities.
“Support your friends,” Williams said. “What someone in that position needs is your support, and not your opinions.”
Fisher added that in her opinion, the best way to prevent relationship violence is to continue to come to events like Purple Light Night, which educate and inform people about the issue of relationship violence.
CARE also provided information in the event’s programs about how to help a friend or loved one who may be in a situation of relationship violence.
“I think that events like this are really important not just for highlighting the issue of not letting relationship violence fly under the radar, but I think that this also draws attention to the resources that are available to help,” Cottone said.
“We are not just trying to highlight the problem and the issue and connect it to the lives of college students, but we are also trying to show people that there are resources available, that there is help and we are ready whenever you are ready to reach out and get help and we know it can take a long time, we know it can be difficult, it can be hard, but we are there and we CARE.” she said.
CARE is located on the ground floor of the University Health Center, open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and accepts walk-in appointments.