No Visible Bruises Candlelight Vigil: Domestic Violence Awareness

On Thursday, Oct 24, 2019, at 7 pm, All Saints Episcopal Church of the North Shore will hold its annual interfaith candlelight vigil for the north shore, remembering victims and honoring survivors of domestic violence during this month's National Domestic Violence Awareness month.

The theme for this year's vigil is "No Visible Bruises." Together, we will remember the victims who have lost their lives to domestic violence in the past year, and honor and support survivors within our communities who have escaped domestic violence, and those who have yet to escape.

The statistics around domestic violence are staggering.

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are victims of physical violence by a partner every year.

• Every nine seconds, a woman in the U.S. is beaten or assaulted by a current or ex-significant other.
• One in four men is a victim of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner.

Another shocking statistic: the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2012 is 6,488. The number of women who were murdered by current or ex-male partners during that same time frame is 11,766, according to the Huffington Post. That’s almost double the number of people who were killed fighting in the war.

Sadly, people who are in abusive relationships will stay with their partners for a number of reasons:

• Their self-esteem is totally destroyed, and they are made to feel they will never be able to find another person with whom to be.
• The cycle of abuse, meaning the ‘honeymoon phase’ that follows physical and mental abuse, makes them believe their partner really is sorry and does love them.
• It’s dangerous to leave. Women are 70 times more likely to be killed in the weeks after leaving their abusive partner than at any other time in the relationship, according to the Domestic Violence Intervention program.
• Victims feel they are personally responsible for their partner's, or their own behavior. They are made to feel like everything that goes wrong is their fault.
• They share a life. Marriages, children, homes, pets, and finances are a big reason victims of abuse feel they can’t leave.

Join us to help raise awareness and show support for those who suffer and those who have died because of domestic violence.

If you live locally and would like to attend the vigil, but are in need of a ride, please call All Saints North Shore at 978-774-1150.