STONE RIDGE – SUNY Ulster hosted the third annual Domestic Violence Information Forum Tuesday. The forum featured speakers from various agencies that deal with the victims of domestic violence.
Emily Trodder-Bodie, program director for non-residential domestic violence services at Family of Woodstock, said domestic violence is not something people commonly talk about, but it is a serious societal issue that needs to be addressed which is a reason why forums such as this one are so important.
“Conversations about domestic violence are hard to have,” she said. “They’re awkward; people feel on edge or uncomfortable but, the more we talk about it, the more help there is, the more awareness of services and as today’s program focused on, hopefully, holding people accountable for that behavior and spreading the news that it’s not tolerable in our community.”
National statistics show that one in four females will become the victim
of domestic violence or sexual assault in their lifetime. Karen Storch,
program director for the Washborne House emergency residential center
of Family of Woodstock, said she’s not sure how Ulster County compares
to the rest of the nation in its statistics, but she knows that their
17 bed facility is full and that is enough evidence to consider domestic
violence a problem in the county requiring attention.
“We need to do something about it; we can’t accept that that’s the way it is and not do something and I think everyone needs to start talking about this issue. That’s probably the first step to raise awareness,” said Storch.
Tony Porter, co-founder of A Call to Men, a New York City-based agency that travels around organizing forums for men to discuss their roles in the issue of domestic violence, believes change begins with the male community, given that the overwhelming majority of domestic violence victims are women who’ve been harmed by men. Porter said he hoped his keynote address at the forum inspired the men who attended to reflect on their masculinity and what it means to be a man.
“I really wanted to engage the men in understanding that a part of how we’re socialized to be men is to have less value in women, to view women as the property of men and to view women as objects, particularly sexual objects and we pass that teaching on to our sons and we really want to begin to challenge that teaching, challenge those notions of manhood and really create a society of healthy, respectful, responsible men and understanding, in doing such, we will actually be ending violence against women,” said Porter.
The month of October is National Domestic Violence Awareness month. Wearing the color purple during this month will help symbolize the plight of domestic violence victims and spread awareness, he said.
