HYANNIS – A woman in the United States is beaten or assaulted by a current or ex-significant other every nine seconds, on average.
That’s just one statistic pulled from a list of many sobering numbers surrounding domestic violence in the United States.
As part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Independence House is hosting the 18th Annual Domestic Awareness Month Community Breakfast on Thursday.
Independence House has a different theme for the breakfast each year, with this year being the ‘Hear My Voice’ theme.
“It’s kind of a takeoff of the ‘Me Too’ movement, which is focused on sexual harassment. Many of the Here My Voice survivors also are not heard and this year we’re having a panel of four survivors who have experienced abuse in a variety of forms,” Director of Prevention, Education and Outreach Chris Morin explained.
The breakfast will feature a panel of demographically diverse survivors of domestic violence tell their stories, as well as a candlelight ceremony honoring homicide victims of intimate partner violence in Massachusetts.
“We also honor those who have died this year in Massachusetts due to domestic violence. We’ll have a display of the silent witnesses. This year, there have been 12 reported deaths due to domestic violence,” Morin said.
“At the end of the morning we honor each of the individuals. We have their name on paper and as their name is said somebody will go up and stand near their victim represented by the silent witness, and then a candle is lit in their honor.”
The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are victims of physical violence by their partner every year.
According to the Huffington Post, a total of 6,488 U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2012. The number of women murdered by current of ex-male partners in that same timeframe is 11,766.
The Independence House Domestic Violence Awareness Month Community Breakfast runs from 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. at the Doubletree by Hilton, located at 287 Iyannough Road in Hyannis.
The event is sponsored by the Cape Cod 5 Foundation.
By TIM DUNN, CapeCod.com News Center
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