CREDIT: MELISSA NOVACASKA
In support of London Abused Women's Centre's Shine the Light campaign, Fanshawe members created a chalk walk design around campus with statistics to get the message across about violence against women. This is one of a few ways the College is showing their support for the campaign.

In an effort to further extend the support of the London Abused Women’s Centre’s Shine the Light campaign, Fanshawe simply took it one step further with a number of things, including a chalk walk.

According to Fanshawe’s sexual violence prevention advisor, Leah Marshall, the purpose of the campaign in general is to “raise awareness of men’s violence against women” which is done by “turning cities, regions and counties purple for all of November”.

Nov. 15 marks the campaign’s day to wear purple and decorate your space in the same colour, to spread more awareness of the initiative, which Marshall said a number of London and Canada wide agencies and services participate in.

Marshall said Fanshawe’s involvement with the campaign is a “way of contributing to such an important issue and working so strongly with one of our community partners, which is the London Abused Women’s Centre”.

According to Marshall, one way the College participates in the campaign is by turning exterior lights purple, which signals shining light on violence against women.

“We’re standing in solidarity with abused women and supporting them and understanding that any shame or blame that they may feel does not belong to them, but belongs to the perpetrators of their abuse,” Marshall said. “Purple is a symbol of courage, survival and honour and it symbolizes the fight to end gender based violence.”

Though the College has been in partnership with the campaign for a number of years, Marshall said this is the third year the chalk walk event has taken place.

According to Marshall, the chalk walk is a “really important” part of the College’s way to help with the campaign and includes statistics and information about the campaign itself onto the sidewalks surrounding main buildings around the campus including the corner of the registrar’s office, residences and the F bus loop.

While the purple lights are a way to signal awareness, Marshall said the chalk walk adds something different to the campaign.

“This is done to not only have the actual awareness of the purple lights, but also to put the statistics in a really clear way for people to kind of comprehend and understand the magnitude of the issue,” Marshall said.

Marshall said the chalk walk is an addition to the College’s involvement with the campaign, and is another way to get information out to people.

“I think having the information kind of on the sidewalks on campus… it’s not a booth, it’s not a poster, it’s not a sign, it’s just a very different way for people to stop and engage with that information on their everyday of coming into work or coming into class,” Marshall said.

Some of the statistics included on the chalk walk show that each year in Canada, over 40,000 arrests are made due to domestic violence, while in Canada, on average, every six days a women is killed by her intimate partner. This leads up to 87 per cent of “all” police reported domestic assaults to be are against women.

According to Marshall, the chalk walk initiative has been a success, with some people even stopping in their tracks to “take in the information, or comment about the statistics” written down on the ground.

“I think sometimes we don’t maybe know all of the numbers, or have an understanding of maybe the magnitude of the issue and so this is a way to really kind of hit the point home that this is, [gender based violence] is something that we all need to be aware of, we need to be aware of intimate partner violence against all, people of all genders,” Marshall said.

Although the Shine the Light campaign specifically focuses on women, Marshall wants student to know the college looks out for everyone on campus.

“We support students of any gender that have experienced intimate partner violence or sexual violence and that services are available to them if they’re interested and wanting to seek those services.”