Liberal Area Rape Crisis & Domestic Violence Services Blog

TW: This article may contain difficult content to read which includes topics of abuse, suicide and violence. Liberal, Kan. – Every October, LARC DVS celebrates domestic violence awareness month by providing informational tables, education opportunities and community displays in the six county service area; Grant, Haskell, Morton, Seward and Stevens counties. This brings additional recognition to the epidemic that affects women and men worldwide. Additionally, how it affects the Black and Brown communities. For this reason, LARC DVS is partnering with the Martin Luther King Jr. Committee and Presephoni Fuller, pastor at South Church of God and MLK committee member, to bring Liberal an educational luminary walk. The event will be held Oct. 21 from 6-8 p.m. at Light Park. Fuller initiated the idea to “Shine the Light on Domestic Violence” earlier this year, when she proposed the idea to Lori Hensley, the LARC DVS executive director. Fuller stated, “any violence against anyone is considered violence, and as long as we dont shine a light on it, we will not be liberated.” Fuller is an advocate and activist who speaks up against domestic violence. She gets her inspiration from Martin Luther King Jr., who was a nonviolent spokesperson for the civil rights movement. “Domestic violence was a part of the civil rights movement just as much as the violence against Black people was, and I believe that bringing attention to this part of the movement is so important because it could save someone's life,” Fuller said. Fuller shared her own story, and stated that her mother went through a series of abusive relationships, which Fuller witnessed herself as a young child. “She was with eight different men in her lifetime, and all of them perpetrated on her. I remember coming home from school and I would hide in the closet because of how violent her boyfriends were. They would drink a lot, and attack her for any little thing that wasn't done around the house. I would see a lot of bruises on my mother, and I witnessed a lot of violence from that,” Fuller shared. Fuller said police officers eventually knew their address by memory because of how often they were called. Fuller stated that everything in the power and control wheel happened to her mother which kept her in fear of her life and fearful to leave. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, the power and control wheel serves as a guide for survivors of abuse to see the tactics their perpetrator may be using on them in the abusive relationship. Things such as intimidation, economic abuse, isolation, minimizing and denying the abuse, emotional abuse and physical abuse are on the wheel. It is called power and control, because the tactics keep the perpetrator with most of the power and control in the relationship over the survivor. Fuller disclosed that her mother eventually took her own life because of the abuse she endured and the lack of help that she received. “The event of my mothers death was in correlation to her domestic violence experience. It has driven and inspired me to bring awareness in this way because no one talks about the death rates and suicide rates, and the hidden mental and physical scars that abuse causes,” Fuller said. “Especially in Black homes, the generational trauma of staying quiet about what happens in our homes, perpetuates behaviors like this to happen again. We cannot be silenced and allow this to continue happening,” she continued. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Black women and men experience domestic violence at a disproportionately high rate. 45.1% of Black women and 40.1% of Black men have experienced intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner sexual violence and/or intimate partner stalking in their lifetimes. “Nine times out of 10, if a young male sees violence in their home, and is not in an environment where he is nurtured and loved, he will perpetrate in the future,” Fuller stated. The walk will have eight different stations with different pieces of the power and control wheel, with LARC DVS advocates standing at each of the stations for questions or support. There will also be entertainment for attendees to enjoy, as well as refreshments. Lastly, the event will end with a stroll around the park with lit candles that participants will be able to hold to honor the many lives affected and lost to domestic violence. Additionally, Fuller will be giving out Silvia's Purple Boxes–named after her mom– to children who attend the walk. Silvia's Purple Boxes is an awareness campaign Fuller started on her own to commemorate her mothers memory and to support children going through domestic violence. The boxes contain things such as stickers and crayons. Fuller shared that she has educated herself on the effects that domestic violence has on children in abusive homes and realizes that a lot of the time, young children in violent homes do not have many of their own belongings, but belongings that have been passed down or donated to them. She wants to give children the opportunity to own brand new items gifted to them. Fuller continued to share that she wanted to work on this event directly with LARC DVS because of the work the agency does in the community for survivors of domestic violence, and her beliefs on how important it is to stand up for women and children going through it. “I really believe this event will be a healing, helpful, and educational experience for women affected of all ages,” Fuller said.