Involvement: IU Kokomo Demonstrates Campus Wide Support for Take Back the Night/Angel Walk
April 11, 2008
“Every nine seconds a woman in the U.S. is beaten by her current, or former, husband or intimate partner.”
“20% of all emergency room visits by women are the result of domestic violence and 75% of these women will have additional injuries requiring treatment within a year.”
“Domestic violence does not always mean beatings and a victim that is black and blue. There is emotional abuse, financial abuse, sexual abuse, control of friends and family and even control in the workplace. Most repetitive abusers are very careful about not leaving visible signs on their victims.”
These statements, found on the Web site of the Family Service Association of Howard County, Inc, emphasize an ongoing concern that will be addressed when the Indiana University Kokomo American Democracy Project and the Howard County Family Service Association sponsor the third annual Take Back the Night/Angel Walk event on April 22, 2008. The Take Back the Night rally will begin, at 5:30 p.m. in Alumni Hall featuring Chancellor Person, Mayor Goodnight, a representative from the FSA, the announcement of the scholarship winner, and a message from a survivor of domestic abuse. Immediately following, walkers will start the Angel Walk, a one-mile walk, which runs north along Washington to the elementary school and then back to Alumni Hall. After the walk, there will be refreshments, music by Gary and Jessica Rhum, student projects on display, and announcements regarding fundraising winners.
Participation in TBTN is campus wide. Many classes on the IU Kokomo campus have incorporated domestic abuse awareness into their coursework through curricula, workshops, projects, and/or forming teams for the Angel Walk. One course Sociology S360, Topics in Social Policy: Family Violence is directly related. “This is a very important event. Domestic violence is a serious issue facing society that needs to be addressed,” says class instructor, Nancy Greenwood, Ph.D. Students have been assigned a poster on the theme of Family Violence to be displayed at TBTN, and in conjunction with School of Public and Environmental Affairs, students are gathering small bottles of personal hygiene products for the women’s shelter.
Nursing students learned to identify situations in which a nurse would refer a client to a local women’s shelter and also formed an Angel Walk team. Other students in nursing research examined and critiqued the research literature regarding many different aspects of domestic violence with the goal of guiding nursing practice. They have summarized their findings through professional poster displays.
Criminal Justice Students, and students who have attended the Indiana Coalition Against Sexual Assault, will also display their poster presentations in Alumni Hall.
Art students will be decorating the windows and exhibiting original prints throughout Alumni Hall in a display titled Searching for Strength.
Purdue Computer Graphics Technology students were given the task to design a logo for the Take Back the Night/Angel Walk event, which showcases the underlying themes and principles of the organization. The students were then to design a variety of media such as posters and t-shirts around their own logo and create full color mock-ups of these materials. Participants in this year’s event will choose which graphics theme will be used next year. The theme for this year’s shirts and all of the marketing pieces, including the logo and posters, were designed by last year’s winner, Duskie Rowland who is a Purdue Computer Graphics Technology student.
Education methods students distributed a TBTN high school essay contest flyer to local high schools in which they are doing field experiences. High School and Middle School education students have read the HS essays and selected the winning essay. Other students, after an awareness workshop with Pam Isaac, director of FSA/DVS, and Madison McCorkle, Indiana’s Lt. Governor Hoosier Rising Star Award Recipient 2007, have worked with Madison’s Quarter-by-Quarter campaign to raise funds and awareness in the community by placing Collection containers in area businesses. All monies collected will benefit FSA’s Domestic Violence Shelter.
Since Freshman Learning Community students are required to engage in service learning activities and to apply various concepts and skills from their experience and academic disciplines to identified needs within their service-learning field experiences, several students are forming a fundraising team for Family Service Association, and some will participate in Angel Walk. Other students and staff members collected paper products, personal hygiene products, and other items for TBTN.
Additionally, in preparation for this event, student organizations and groups have been holding fundraisers on campus. The Criminal Justice Association and Alpha Sigma Phi members are selling purple ribbons to raise money for the battered women’s shelter.
Another project adopted by the event this year is the Clothesline Project (CLP), which started on Cape Cod, MA in 1990 to address violence against women and has been used by women who have been affected by violence as a vehicle for the expression of their emotions. They decorate a shirt and then hang it on a clothesline to be seen by others as a visual reminder of the problem of violence against women. The project will be on display for a week before the event, and during the event. If someone would like to design a shirt, or needs shirt supplies, please contact Kat Widman 455-9491. Also, shirts have to be given to the office of student activities before being hung on the line.
Prizes will be presented for the top fundraising individuals and to fundraising teams, and there will be a free event t-shirt to the first 100 people who raise $50. IU faculty, staff, and students can form Angel Walk teams to raise money and walk during the event by contacting Kat Widman at 455-9491. Community members who would like to form a team should contact the FSA office at 457-9313.
New this year, everyone who walks will have to sign a waiver of liability before participating in the angel walk. These waivers will be available starting at 4:30 p.m. in Alumni Hall on April 22. Waivers will be available prior to the event to anyone under the age of 18 whose parent or guardian is not attending Take Back the Night/Angel Walk. ANYONE UNDER THE AGE OF 18 WILL NEED TO HAVE A PARENT OR GUARDIAN’S SIGNATURE. If you are under the age of 18, and need a liability waiver before the event, please call 455-9491.
Indiana University Kokomo serves an 11 county area in north central Indiana. The campus offers more than 40 academic programs including four master’s degree programs: Master of Business Administration, Master of Liberal Studies, Master of Science in Education, and Master of Public Management.
