Never alone: Federal grant to raise domestic violence awareness

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and the Office for Advocacy & Violence Prevention received a federal grant of $550,000 from the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women to help reduce domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking on campus, according to an email sent last Wednesday by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. 

Cynthia Jones, a professor of philosophy and director of OAVP, said the grant was a collaboration with The Institute on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault at The Univeristy of Texas at Austin. She said the grant is called the Texas Stalking Project. 

“We worked on a project to address issues in stalking,” Jones said. “So, even though the grant is to work with any victims of these kinds of violence, we’re particularly targeting stalking, because during the pandemic, the number of cases of stalking that were reported by campus people was the one number that went up during the lockdown.”

She said the grant will provide resources to educate, raise awareness and understand signs of stalking and training for local law enforcement, community and campus advocates. 

In the abstract for the Texas Stalking Project, she wrote that other categories, such as domestic/family violence, dating violence and sexual assault decreased. 

“While we realize that just because reports have decreased on our campuses, this doesn’t mean that the incidents have decreased,” Jones wrote. 

She said domestic violence is more frequently about power and control than anything else. 

Jones said a good indicator of an unhealthy relationship or dating violence has to do with someone attempting to or exerting a large amount of control over the other person, either through finances, intimidation or shame. 

“Like ‘No one else would ever love you,’ ‘No one else would ever care for you.’ ‘I’m better.’ … Things like that are real common phrases,” she said. “Sometimes, the worst part of a domestic violence situation is the harm caused by someone’s words that can be far more hurtful than violence. But, you know, slapping, punching, strangulation, deprivation, all sorts of things fall under the category of domestic violence.”

She said it is important for students to be aware of these signs because people can be in situations that they do not realize are particularly harmful, especially if they do not have examples of healthy relationships.

Jones said an overwhelming majority of people who experience violence do not report it. 

“They usually talk to a friend or another family member and it’s just as important for those people to know how to suggest help, how to get their friend or a loved one some assistance, or at least point them in the right direction,” she said. “Because you can’t make anybody get assistance if they’re not ready for it.”

She said her office also offers confidential in-house trauma informed counselors who work with students who have experienced violence and stalking. 

“It doesn’t matter when it happened, sometimes people experience a triggering event or trauma well after an event,” Jones said. “We work closely with the Counseling Center. We’re not like a replacement for them. It’s a different sort of counseling that focuses on trauma. So they make referrals to us and sometimes we will make referrals to them if somebody would be better served in their setting.”

She said they can also accompany students to law enforcement. 

“Many times, people don’t want to report things, but if they do decide to, we can be with them so they don’t do it alone and Texas actually has really good advocacy laws that are very recent that allow an advocate to be in an interview between, for example, a detective and someone who’s been assaulted.”

For more information on events and resources, visit the Office for Victim Advocacy & Violence Prevention website.