This is the poster you haven't seen before

Think  about the domestic violence awareness posters you've seen over the last 30 years. What image comes to mind? A woman with a black eye perhaps?


I often think those posters have steered community perception in the wrong direction in many ways. The most obvious is that they reinforce a myth that relationship abuse is always physical. So people in abusive relationships are reticent to reach out for help if they're not being beaten. Instead they endure emotional abuse, financial control, social isolation, psychological abuse, and sometimes sexual abuse. And through it all they don't identify that they are experiencing domestic violence, simply because they've never been physically assaulted.


That's not the only problem with the visual messaging we've often used to depict domestic violence. Watch this video to understand another facet of relationship abuse that's often missing from  our messaging. You may be surprised!

"It's vast, it is outrageous and it should be a national priority."

Those were the words, Nicholas Kristof used in discussing  domestic violence in this weekend's New York Times.


Domestic violence deserves far more attention and resources, and far more police understanding of the complexities involved. This is not a fringe concern. It is vast, it is outrageous, and it should be a national priority. Even more importantly he advocates for increased awareness and early intervention to avoid crisis and tragedy like those described in his article.


I agree. We can change...we can end intimate partner violence. For all victims of domestic violence, women, men and children.