Program News 2006
Annual Vigil Remembers Victims of Domestic Violence
Since 1993, the Safe Homes Project has marked Domestic Violence Awareness Month by holding an October Remembrance Vigil. On a recent Friday evening, ten candles were lit in memory of ten Brooklyn women murdered by abusive partners over the past year.
Approximately eighty people gathered outside PS 321 in Park Slope for the candle lighting and reading of the names of the deceased and then made the solemn processional through the streets to the Park Slope United Methodist Church, where survivors of domestic violence shared their stories. "I could have been one of those candles," said one woman who had been helped by Safe Homes.
Maria, a survivor who contacted the Safe Homes Project when her abusive husband attempted to molest their daughter, urged women in her situation to seek help. "There are many organizations that offer legal access, moral support, and individual counseling," she said, adding that the Spanish-language support group she attends has and continues to be an enormous help in her recovery, because "I was allowed to vent out all of my pain without feeling like I was the only one suffering."
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz spoke of the silence that surrounded domestic violence during his youth, vestiges of which unfortunately still remain. "Even today," he said "it may not be as hidden as when I was a kid, but you know and I know there are many families and women who remain silent." Also in attendance was Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, a survivor of an abusive home as a child, who thanked the assembled crowd for "Never forgetting that we continue to have tragedies related to domestic violence."
The Safe Homes Project, which began in 1976 as the Park Slope Safe Homes Project (the name was recently changed to reflect the expanded reach beyond the neighborhood and the commitment to making "every home a safe home") offers crisis intervention, safety planning, legal advocacy, counseling and emergency shelter and other resources for women who have experienced domestic violence and their children. For more information, including our hotline number, please click here.
October 25, 2006
