Andrew Martins, Managing Editor
A Somerset County non-profit organization is planning to host a candlelight vigil in the coming weeks aimed at remembering the lives lost, as well as those currently affected, as a result of domestic violence.
Safe + Sound Somerset will hold its 29th annual Candlelight Vigil on Thursday, Oct. 5 at the Warren Township Municipal Building in observance of October’s designation as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
The annual somber, yet inspirational event will take place at 7 p.m. and will bring an opportunity to help put a face to the men and women who endured emotional, mental and physical trauma in their personal lives.
Safe + Sound Somerset officials said this year’s event will feature the first-hand accounts of what one domestic abuse survivor went through, while community leaders will address the consequences of abuse beyond the victims: on family and friends, neighborhoods and places of work and worship.
The organization will also have a display of life-size silhouettes representing the 37 individuals who have been murdered in domestic abuse-related incidents in Somerset County since 1976 that attendees can walk among and read from their biographies.
Safe + Sound Somerset estimates that “every nine seconds a woman is abused in the United States; in Somerset County alone, at any given moment, there are 42,000 individuals suffering in abusive relationships.”
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), “nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner” throughout the country. In one year, that figure results in more than 10 million cases of domestic abuse.
Additionally, the NCADV estimates that “1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men experience intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner sexual violence, and/or intimate partner stalking in their lifetime.” Intimate partner violence accounts for 15 percent of all violent crime.
In New Jersey, the NCADV estimates that children were involved or present in approximately 29 percent of all domestic violence offenses occurring in 2012. The group estimates that “wives were the victims in 16 percent (10,829) and ex-wives were the victims in three percent (2,187) of the reported domestic violence offenses” in recent years. Overall, the group says “women were victims in 75 percent (48,697) of all domestic violence offenses.”
For more information or to volunteer for this event, contact Joe Godby 908-359-0003 Ext. 204, jgodby@safe-sound.org, or visit www.safe-sound.org.
