Wearing purple for awareness

INNISFAIL - There are some town-wide efforts underway to help raise awareness of family violence this month.

Town council has declared November family violence prevention month and on Nov. 1, town staff dressed in purple to help raise awareness.

Karen Bradbury, the town's community and social development coordinator, is spearheading an Innisfail-wide challenge for businesses and groups to have a ‘wear purple day' sometime this month and send her a picture.

“I just thought let's go one step further this year … try and engage the community,” she said.

Last year, Town of Innisfail staff participated but Bradbury wanted to increase efforts this year, thanks to resources from the Central Alberta Regional Vision for Non-Violence Coalition.

“The library's actually going to be setting up a display as well,” Bradbury said. The display will include various resource materials for those impacted by family violence.

A local bank is participating with purple shirts but also displaying a single red rose, which represents victims of domestic violence.

Red silhouettes, an adult and a child sized one, can be spotted at the town office and at the library. These two represent the women, men and children who are victims of family violence.

According to statistics from the Central Alberta Regional Vision for Non-Violence Coalition, Alberta has the third highest rate of intimate partner violence in Canada. The same statistics say there has been a two per cent increase in family violence in the province since 2014. In Canada, 172 homicides are committed by a family member every year.

The community's efforts are to try and show that Innisfailians will work together to end family violence.

“I want to make it normal for people to talk about these issues,” Bradbury said. Not talking about it doesn't make the issue go away, she said.