The Confronting Violence in our Communities Summit will be held Tuesday, October 15th in the Hadley Conference Rooms in Hays Medical Center. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the summit is designed to help promote awareness and education within the community through numerous groups that co-sponsor the event.
Options Executive Director Charlotte Linsner told Hays Post that this event is another opportunity to reach out to the community.
“The summit began as a collaborative effort between the agencies that sponsor the event in an effort to bring a quality education to this part of the state. This is the 3rd year for it, our evaluations from the last two years have been extremely positive.”
She added that violence education and prevention isn’t just about inter-personal violence; there are other types of violence that occur outside of the family such as domestic, sexual, stalking, or violence in the workplace.
This year’s speaker, Rus Funk, has founded multiple organizations aimed at ending domestic and sexual violence. Linsner said that as part of his presentation Tuesday, he will also develop a 6 month plan for the community.
“One of the things he does is work with communities to have a community plan. Can we have a no-tolerance policy? How about our community? Can we look at it and look at a plan and go towards a no-tolerance policy? So he’s going to work with the group, work out a 6 month plan. And then we’re going to see how we can implement that. He’s going to work with us during the 6 months, and then come out and see if we’ve been able to implement the plan and what our progress is.”
Linsner added that Options serves 18 counties, and this 6 month plan will be a test. If it can be successfully implemented in Ellis County, the group will be able to roll it out to other communities.
One goal she has is that more males get involved in the programs. She said that though there are plenty of men who support the cause, there aren’t as many men actively involved as there are women.
Other agency projects for October:
Cut it out – Providing information to area beauticians to pass onto clients.
Purple ribbon campaign – Raising awareness with the help of law enforcement.
Registrations for the Summit will be accepted until 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. Click below for the registration flyer.