By Michael V. Hannigan/HCN
Tuesday, Oct. 6, Commissioners’ Court approved a proclamation declaring October Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
At noon, officials from law enforcement, the legal system and activists gathered on the courthouse lawn to read the proclamation and renew their determination to stand against domestic violence.
The Clothesline Project was hung as a backdrop to the event. The Clothesline Project includes t-shirts created by abuse survivors. Here is a video I made of the t-shirts in 2014.
Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Mark Hall told the crowd, “This is not the only time we are going to meet here. We are going to continue to meet together like this every year … to remind ourselves and our community that this is a problem, an ongoing problem that affects our community and oftentimes touches people that we know and love. But that shouldn’t discourage you. So I’m not trying to be a downer here, because we can see examples every single day of a battle won, a life saved, a life changed, and occasionally a family reunited and restored.”
Domestic violence is a big problem in Henderson County and it keeps getting bigger. East Texas Crisis Center Outreach Coordinator Carla Gandy said her agency averages 50 new clients each month and sees about 80 returning clients monthly.
“I would say 75 percent of the clients we see are actively in a relationship trying to get out,” Carla said. “Some of the other women we see have experienced sexual abuse as a child, domestic violence as a child, and they are just coming forward now to get help.”
This is why local activists, agencies, and domestic violence law experts are so important. Ultimately, in order to help more survivors of domestic abuse find a domestic violence lawyer that can help them to get the justice that they deserve, more people need to speak out.
Speaking before the group, County Attorney Clint Davis said, “I am so grateful that in our county we have victim relief people, we have Marlena Taylor, we have Carla Gandy, we have the Henderson County Help Center, we have all these other agencies, because the great thing about those agencies is they do get up every morning thinking about one thing, and that’s the victims of domestic violence. I can’t imagine where we would be without a lot of those great volunteers, great people and the great agencies that we have.”
I recorded a podcast with Carla after the proclamation reading, specifically focusing on teen dating violence in Texas. For more on this issue, please listen to the podcast.