Show your support. Wear purple.

The month of October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and this Friday, Assault Care Center Extending Shelter & Support is raising community-wide awareness and support of domestic violence by promoting the event “Color the City.”

ACCESS is asking the entire Ames and ISU community to wear purple Friday in order to bring awareness and support for those dealing with domestic violence around the world and specifically in the Ames community.

“Domestic violence can happen to anyone, so by having the community all wear purple during the month of October, we hope to show that, as a community, we are taking a united stand against this issue,” said Cailan J. Sockness, domestic violence services coordinator at ACCESS.

“It is difficult for people to come forward, and therefore, we take our efforts of raising awareness and decreasing myths and other barriers very [serious]. By raising awareness of the resources and options survivors of domestic violence have, we as a community can help those needing services get out of dangerous situations.”

Throughout October, ACCESS is reaching out to the Ames community through presentations and trainings in order to teach citizens how to take a stand against the issue of domestic violence.

One ISU faculty member has already asked her classes to participate in Friday’s “Color the City” event.

Diana Baltimore, lecturer of human development and family studies, has asked all 390 of her students in three HDFS classes — Children, Families and Public Policy, Human Sexuality, and Family Interaction Dynamics — to wear purple to raise awareness and educate others about domestic violence.

“Most people do not think that a human sexuality course would deal with issues such as domestic violence, but our course addresses power and sexual coercion and other associated topics such as intimate partner violence (domestic violence), sexual assault, drug-assisted sexual assault, rape, sexual harassment and sexual abuse of children,” Baltimore said.

In September, Baltimore also had Sockness speak to her class.

Baltimore believes many people do not realize “domestic violence affects both men and women, is found across the world, and can be comprised of physical, psychological/emotional, and/or sexual abuse. Therefore, it is imperative that we discuss domestic violence, educate others about this topic and support initiatives to raise awareness across all communities.”

As defined by the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence, “domestic violence is a pattern of coercive, abusive and threatening behaviors aimed at gaining power and control over an intimate partner. These behaviors include cutting the victim off from family and friends, manipulation, sexual assaults and using children as pawns.”

“Nationally, an average of one in four women will be victims of domestic violence in their lifetime,” Sockness said. “At ACCESS, in the past couple of years, we have seen dramatic increases in the number of individuals utilizing our shelter services. We serve nearly 800 individuals per year with all of our services, including shelter and crisis and supportive advocacy services.”

On Thursday, ACCESS, in conjunction with the Story County Coalition Against Domestic Violence, hosted a “Race for Safety” at the Moore Memorial Park in North Ames at 6:30 p.m.

ACCESS also assisted the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center with its “Empty Seat at the Table” event on Oct. 4. Workers and volunteers visually displayed more than 230 chairs to represent individuals who have been killed in Iowa due to domestic violence from January 1995 to October 2011.

This event has been presented by the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center for the past four years during Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

“It’s a really great visual display around a topic that can be extremely difficult to talk about,” said Christine “Petey” Peterson, equity and social justice educator at the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center. Peterson plays an instrumental role in planning and sponsoring events during Domestic Violence Awareness Month at Iowa State.

Peterson said that sometimes the traditional definition of domestic violence “can cause people to struggle to name what they are going through as domestic violence.”

She believes domestic violence is more prevalent in the average student’s life than they will admit, and hopes that through these campus events students will stand up for themselves and seek support.

The Margaret Sloss Women’s Center is hosting two more events in the near future. On Tuesday, from noon to 1 p.m., Kelly Leonard from Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Student Services will be presenting how interpersonal relationship violence affects the LGBTQ community. Next Friday, at Fridays at Sloss House from 3 to 5 p.m., the documentary “Searching for Andrea Shelton” will be shown. The film also relates to the topic of domestic violence in America.

“Our goal for this month is to create a safer and stronger community by raising awareness of this issue in order to help put a stop to it,” Sockness said. “By teaching the community about the effects and harm that this violence can have on an individual, we hope to give them the tools to help support victims and actively participate on intervening in situations.”

All the events and activities ACCESS is promoting during the month of October also can be found on its Facebook page.