October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, marked in Tallahassee by a candlelight vigil at Lake Ella.
Refuge House leads this annual event. The shelter’s mission is to provide direct services to battered women, their children and sexual assault survivors. Executive Director Emily Mitchem says the awareness month is honored nationally…
“...to give a safe space for survivors to be heard," Mitchem said, "and to just put out education and awareness in the community about the seriousness of this problem.”
Mitchem says about 4,000 victims of domestic violence come forward to Refuge House for services each year and about 2,000 who have been victims of sexual assault.
The event at Lake Ella included the words of survivors.
“You may ask yourself for years, ‘Why did this happen to me?’ And I may never find an answer. And it is because someone, somewhere made the world awake. It means others like myself will also survive.”
Refuge House serves Leon County and seven surrounding counties The hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at (850) 681-2111.
