SPOKANE, Wash. — October is domestic violence awareness month. To help raise awareness, the "End the Violence Coalition'' and "Stop the Silence" are teaming up with Spokane area businesses.
The next time you walk into your favorite bar or restaurant in the Spokane area, you might see signs with QR codes. When you scan the code from there, you'll be directed to resources to fight domestic violence, as well as a list of area businesses participating in "Purple for a Purpose." Annie Murphey is one of the event organizers. She says it's meant to be a discrete way of helping victims.
"People need to know where the resources are people often don't know where to go,” said Murphey. “So, this gives a really easy accessible way for free people to get resources."
Bruncheonette is one of 100 businesses participating in this year's campaign. Jolie Forral, the owner of Bruncheonette, says everyone should help if they can.
“It's a big thing,” said Forral. “Something that I think more people should be advocating for just because when you're in that situation, you might not feel like you have support or you feel alone. So, I think letting people in our community know that there's people that are caring about them or thinking about them, and we're one of the restaurants that want to support that good cause.”
This is the second year of the prevention campaign. Last year the goal was to provide education and awareness. This year, they've moved towards more awareness and fundraising.
“So, we've had consistently high rates of domestic violence and child abuse for many, many years,” said Murphey. “Domestic violence still has a lot of stigma around it, we're afraid to talk about it. So, through things like this partnering with, you know, the business sector, the restaurants, local restaurants, we really want to get the message out, this is everyone's issue. It's affecting someone that you know, one in three women, one in 10 men here in Spokane will be victims of domestic violence.”
DOWNLOAD THE KREM SMARTPHONE APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE KREM+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
Fire TV: search for "KREM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com.