The 25th of November marks White Ribbon Day and the start of a 16-day global action period, raising awareness of domestic abuse and the wider issue of violence against women and girls.
Each year Leeway runs a campaign alongside the international movement, tackling issues that are particularly prominent in our local area. The campaign serves as an important reminder for the role that we all have to play in tackling domestic abuse.
The White Ribbon Movement
The white ribbon is the symbol of unity for all the people committed to preventing and eliminating all the forms of violence against women and girls.
It has been the symbol of the international campaign since 1989. The campaign lasts for 16 days, starting on White ribbon day: the 25th of November. During this time, events and campaigns are held across the world to raise awareness of domestic abuse and the wider issue of violence against women and girls.
This year, the international campaign focuses on the FIFA World Cup, which started on the 20th of November, highlighting the things that men can do to achieve gender equality and end violence against women and girls.
Leeway’s Campaign
Whilst keeping the core messages of the international movement, our focus for 2022 is the impact that domestic abuse has on children and young people. This has been a trending topic in the last year, with children recognised as victims of domestic abuse in the Domestic Abuse Act (2021).
We wanted to highlight this, as well as educating people on the various effects domestic abuse has on children and young people, and the importance of healthy relationships.
As part of this, we have created a resource for schools, which provides information on domestic abuse, the impact it has on children and young people, and what they can do to ensure they are providing the best possible environment for the children they work with.
We hope that the resources will be useful and informative, as well as encouraging schools to review whether they could do more to tackle domestic abuse.
Leeway hopes to work with schools moving forward, whether that is for training, briefings, workshops, or just general advice on issues that they are seeing in their school.
Supporting Leeway’s Campaign
Throughout the 16-day action period, we will be active on social media, posting a range of information about domestic abuse and the impact it has on children and young people.
You can support our campaign by liking and sharing our posts, helping us to spread this important information to as many people as possible!
We believe that everyone has a role to play in tackling domestic abuse – not just during the White Ribbon Campaign, but every day.
Our Twitter is @LeewayDV and our Facebook page is Leeway Domestic Violence and Abuse Services. Thank you for your support – let’s spread the message to as many people as possible!
