It’s Domestic Violence Awareness Month—Let’s Be the Bridge
By Dave Beatty, Founder of Riders Against Domestic Violence October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Across the country, purple ribbons will appear on shirts, storefronts, motorcycles, and community displays. Behind every ribbon is a reason to care. Someone is afraid to go home. Someone is being told they cannot survive on their own. Someone is […]
Power and Control: When Your Life Stops Feeling Like Your Own
By Dave Beatty | Riders Against Domestic Violence (RADV) You check the time before you leave the store. You rehearse an explanation for a phone call from a friend. You change what you were going to wear because you know what the reaction will be. Little by little, everyday decisions become decisions about avoiding someone […]
Retaliation When You Choose Safety
An RADV article by Dave Beatty Sometimes the hardest part of asking for help comes afterward. You tell someone what has been happening. You set a boundary. You make a plan to leave, seek a protective order, or begin rebuilding your life. Then the person who harmed you tries to make you pay for that […]
31 Purple Ribbons, One Conversation at a Time
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Years ago, I started a simple tradition: I made 31 small purple ribbons, attached each one to a safety pin, and wore one every day of the month. When I noticed someone who seemed to be having a hard day, I would sometimes offer them my ribbon. Often, that […]
Awareness Begins When We Spread the Word
Domestic violence often happens behind closed doors, but silence around it reaches far beyond the home. A person may go to work, smile at neighbors, and answer “I’m fine” while trying to figure out how to stay safe. We cannot always know what someone is carrying. We can make sure they know help exists. Awareness […]
It Happens Behind Closed Doors
The door closes. The smile that held up through dinner disappears. The conversation changes. A person who seemed kind and attentive in public begins to criticize, threaten, control, or frighten someone in private. For many survivors, that difference is part of the harm. People outside the home may see a caring partner, a respectable family, […]
The Work After the Direction: One Step at a Time
Someone may give you a phone number, a website, a list of resources, or a plan for your next step. That direction can matter. But then comes the hard part: making the call, filling out the form, finding a ride, telling your story again, or trying another door when the first one does not open. […]
RADV Presents: The Ripple Effect
Changing Tomorrow by Investing in Today Series #18: Don’t Teach Them to Keep the Family Secret There’s an old message many children grow up hearing: “What happens in this house stays in this house.” Sometimes that means ordinary family privacy. But sometimes it teaches something far more dangerous. Silence. A child may begin believing that […]
When You Have to Face Your Abuser in Court
The night before court, you may lay out your clothes, check the time and place, and try to remember everything you want to say. Then your thoughts return to the hardest part: you may have to see the person who hurt you. Your stomach tightens. You wonder whether your voice will shake or whether you […]
Using Your Voice, One Safe Step at a Time
There may have been a time when speaking honestly came with a cost. Maybe your words were interrupted, twisted, mocked, or used against you. After enough of that, silence can begin to feel safer. If that sounds familiar, there is nothing wrong with you. You learned how to get through something difficult. Finding your voice […]