Bennett College was joined by Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan, comedian/actor Mike Epps and North Carolina A&T State University on Friday for the “Paint the Town Purple” walk. The walk brought much needed attention to the horrors of domestic violence and encouraged the elimination of incidents of domestic violence on college campuses.
Mike Epps who was in town for a concert said, “God brought me to Bennett for a reason. I have daughters. Unfortunately, we get in situations but we all have to understand what’s good for us and what’s NOT good for us, even if it’s love. You are beautiful sisters and definitely the prize queens of this world. Keep supporting this worthy cause.”
Mayor Nancy Vaughan who has a 13-year old daughter said, “I started talking to my daughter about domestic violence when she was 10. What scares me most is that she will get involved with someone who doesn’t deserve her. I want her to know now that that type of behavior is unacceptable.”
The walk was supported by a 2013 grant for $497,242 for the Resources, Intervention Services and Education Project (RISE) awarded to Bennett College, NC A&T State University and Shaw University from the Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women. The project focuses on reducing domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking on college campuses. As a result of the grant, outreach program training and resources are provided through the project as well as community partners for victim safety, offender accountability and prevention.
“This walk gives us the opportunity to stand together as a community and say with one loud vice, ‘we will not stand idly by and watch the senseless violence and deaths of our young women,’ ” said Carla Williams, RISE project coordinator.
According to the American Bar Association, the number one killer of African American women, ages 15 to 34, is homicide at the hands of a current or former intimate partner. In addition, statistics show that one in four college women are s*xually assaulted on a college campuses, one in eight women are raped while in college and that 60% of acquaintance rapes on college campuses occur in casual or steady dating relationships.
The walk began at the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Chapel on the campus of Bennett College and ended at the Dudley Building on the campus of NC A&T State University. Also partnering for the walk were the Family Services of Piedmont, the Sherrie Jackson Foundation and North Carolina Coalition Against s*xual Assault. These organizations are also working in partnership to develop victim service programs as well as protocols and policies that will treat violence against women as a serious offense.
Posted By: Reginald Culpepper
Monday, October 20th 2014 at 3:12PM
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