By Joe Kourieh

Arts & Features

On Monday, Oct. 24, Framingham State Students and staff were encouraged to wear purple as part of an initiative to raise awareness of and fight domestic violence. October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The initiative was led by the Health and Wellness Center, the FSU Peer Leaders, Pride Alliance and Women’s Empowerment.

The purple shirt idea originated from Voices Against Violence, a Framingham-based group which leads community initiatives to help disadvantaged peoples.

FSU partnered with VAV to bring the purple shirt initiative to campus.

“They’re a really good local resource,” said Health and Wellness Center Program Coordinator Judy Grob-Whiting about VAV.

The event featured tables staffed by the clubs and the Health and Wellness Center representatives provided informational sheets and pamphlets. They also gave away 500 cards with purple ribbons attached.

Although this was the first year that the purple shirt program occurred at Framingham State, Grob-Whiting said that she “would be happy to make it an annual thing.”

Pam Lehmberg, the Health and Wellness Center’s nurse practitioner, said, “People think that domestic violence only happens in people’s houses, but it can actually happen on campus between people.

“It’s an important issue,” she added. “And whether or not it’s done exactly like this, we’ll certainly address it every year, because it’s not going away, unfortunately.”

VAV has 24-hour abuse hotlines at 508-626-8686 and 800-593-1125.