Londoners are painting the city purple on Tuesday in support of the London Abused Women Centres (LAWC) campaign to end domestic violence.
Nov. 15 marks Wear Purple Day in LAWC’s Shine the Light campaign on violence against women, with this year’s focus on coercive control and filicide.
According to Jennifer Dunn, executive director of LAWC, coercive control is “a pattern of behaviors intended to isolate, humiliate, and exploit a woman, while filicide is the deliberate act of a parent killing a child.”
The 2022 Shine the Light campaign honours survivor Jennifer Kagan-Vaiter as well as her four-year-old daughter Keira Kagan, who was killed by her biological father in February 2020.
Dunn said that the response from the community on Tuesday has been “extremely overwhelming, but in a good way.”
“This is exactly what we want to see. When people wear purple today, they create a conversation,” she said. “Whether that’s in person, in your workplace, or with your peers, at school or online, it’s so important because women then know that they’re not alone in our community.”
“The severity of the abuse that women and girls are subjected to, as well as the urgent need for support due to housing and food insecurity, continues to increase,” Dunn said at the launch of the campaign. “We first opened our doors in 1983, nearly 40 years ago, and to this day, we continue to provide immediate access to support without a waitlist.”
During the launch of their annual campaign, LAWC reported over 11,700 service interactions last year, including over 6,000 urgent support interactions, and over 5,700 service calls.
“We want to talk about public awareness with this campaign,” Dunn said. “Now, service demands are continuing to increase and especially when we have campaigns like Shine the Light.”
While Tuesday is the official day to wear purple, residents are encouraged to continue to wear it throughout the month of November as matching lights can be seen around businesses and homes.
Visit the LAWC website for more information about the Shine the Light campaign and available services.
Comments