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NO MORE PSA campaign asks employers to get involved
YOUNGSTOWN
Danielle, a professional area businesswoman, didn’t have a black eye or a broken arm.
She wondered herself if she was experiencing domestic violence in her new marriage.
Her husband, she said, was always overprotective. At first, she discounted that, but six weeks into the marriage, his behavior escalated.
“Once, he yelled at me for an hour and didn’t talk to me for two days. He looked at my emails from work and became more insecure and jealous. I couldn’t speak to another man,” she said.
“He held me down for an hour while he yelled at me. I called 911 and the police came, but each time he begged me to come home. It would be better for a little while, and then he would begin again belittling and manhandling me,” Danielle said.
The final episode caused her to go to the police and seek help.
“He held me at gunpoint for more than an hour and only let me go if I promised to come home after picking up a child from school. I went to the police,” she said.
Domestic violence is about control through intimidation and fear, and it tends to escalate, she said.
“It does not get better. That is why we have to break the silence,” she told a rapt audience at Thursday’s kickoff of the local NO MORE Public Service Announcement campaign at St. John Episcopal Church.
“My mission is to spread the word to victims and survivors that they are not alone and that they have options,” Danielle said.
The NO MORE anti-domestic violence PSA campaign, a partnership between the Violence Is Preventable Family Violence Prevention Coalition and the national NO MORE PSA Campaign, is aimed at getting its message to businesses in the tri-county area.
The local PSA campaign featuring community leaders, similar to one featuring professional football players, will be rolled out in the spring, said Bonnie Wilson, director of Someplace Safe, a domestic-violence shelter in Trumbull County.
Jim Tressel, Youngstown State University president, the featured speaker at the event along with Danielle, said NO MORE “calls on all of us together to end the silence and speak out against the violence experienced by people of all genders, races and ethnicities and age groups.”
Studies have shown that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 7 men report being a victim of domestic violence, and 1 in 5 women and 1 in 16 men report being a victim of sexual assault, Tressel said.
He said there are three easy steps to get involved:
Say It: Learn about these issues and talk openly about them.
Share It: Help raise awareness about domestic violence and sexual assault.
Show it: Wear your NO MORE pin. Tell people about it.
“I’ve signed on. I’ve taken the pledge. Now, I’m asking others to do the same and say NO MORE,” Tressel said.
Wilson said she and Dottie Kane, coordinator of the VIP Family Violence Prevention Coalition, said they settled on bringing the message to workplaces because “the women we serve, and their abusers, work.”
Kane said she hopes the NO MORE campaign will encourage employers to develop a company policy on domestic violence and train managers about the three R’s — recognize the signs, respond appropriately and refer victims to resources for help.
Wilson said she and Kane each received $7,500 grants from the HealthPath Foundation of Ohio to fund the NO MORE PSA campaign.
“Domestic violence is a crime that affects the entire community. That makes it everybody’s business,” she said.