UAFS looks at violence

The University of Arkansas at Fort Smith Gender and Intersectional Feminism Committee will host a public event on Domestic Violence Awareness titled “Stop Domestic Violence: A Community Response” March 12-13. The two-day event is free and open to the public, and aims to bring together a variety of stakeholders in the fight against domestic violence, including survivors, social workers, mental and physical health care workers, NGOs, faculty, college students, high school students, members of the clergy, police officers and lawyers.

The event will take place in partnership with Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge; Brooke Axtell, founder and director of She is Rising; the Northwest Arkansas Women’s Shelter; and the Donald W. Reynolds Crisis Intervention Center. The March 12 portion of the program will begin at 3:30 p.m. with the first of two public forum keynote addresses by Rutledge, Axtell and a panel of legal, social and humanities scholars, as well as advocates for violence awareness and prevention. A workshop titled “Empowering Survivors: A Workshop,” focused on stopping domestic violence will follow the discussion. The workshop will target practitioners and NGOs who work to curtail the problem of domestic violence in the State of Arkansas.

The activities on March 13 will be student-centered, with a main session titled “Colleges and the Problem of Gender-Based Violence — Health, Safety and Student Success Concerns.” A UAFS Student Government Association resolution to support efforts to ameliorate domestic violence will be presented by Luke Barber, SGA president. The second day’s events will end with a moderated lunch discussion. Lunch will be provided.

In conjunction with the event, the Northwest Arkansas Women’s Shelter, in partnership with the national Silent Witness program, will place 51 red silhouettes around the UAFS campus during the week of the event to stand in honor of the 51 Arkansans killed by domestic violence in 2017.

Information: academics.uafs.edu/g-and-I-F/domesticviolence.