A woman is assaulted or beaten every 9 seconds in the United States. 

During their lives, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men will be victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner; on an average day more than 20,000 phone calls are placed to the domestic violence hotlines nationwide, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. 

There is no sugarcoating domestic violence, which is violent or aggressive behavior that typically involves the abuse of a spouse or partner.

Domestic abuse victims will suffer economically, mentally and all too often physically because of the abuse they have faced from their partner. This abuse, when perpetrated against women, will go unreported to the police 75 percent of the time.

Even though October is coming to an end, and with it Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the discussions and assistance surrounding the abuse at hand do not. However, the domestic violence that these men and women face does not end.

The Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence, celebrating its 30th anniversary this past September, will be offering more scholarships than ever before through the Alice Barton Scholarship Program, which provides assistance to domestic abuse survivors wishing to move on with their education and careers.

“The Alice Barton Scholarship Program is an opportunity for survivors of domestic violence to help empower their future,” said Lindsay Pingel, director of community engagement for the coalition.

The program will offer 35 survivors of domestic violence $1,000 scholarships that can be used towards tuition, books, school supplies, childcare or housing.

“The one [scholarship] that we are currently taking applications for [is for] winter 2016,” Pingel said. “It’s the most we’ve ever given out, and really it’s because this is our fifth year since we’ve started this program.”

Over the course of the past five years, the program has allocated $200,000 to its recipients.

According to the coaliation’s website, the program “[enables] victims to gain new knowledge and skills” while “[helping] victims increase their self-confidence, find better employment and achieve economic independence. 

Pingel said that once the scholarship is given out, the communication doesn’t always end.

“We have survivors who we work with that have applied for this scholarship, and, just the things that they tell us on how it has given them confidence to move forward with their lives and their college education — it’s really empowering,” Pingel said.

Pingel further said that seeing the cycle of abuse, watching a survivor come in at their lowest point and then evolve into their own self, knowing they are happy, healthy and safe, is a beautiful thing to watch.

“All of these doors have opened up for them that in one time in their life they probably didn’t even think was possible,” Pingel said.

For domestic abuse survivors, removing themselves from the cycle and from the perpetrator may be the hardest thing they may ever have to do. By doing so, opportunities like the Alice Barton Scholarship Program will act as a stepping stone towards a better, safer life.

“A survivor who applies for our scholarship, they could be someone who experienced domestic violence 10 or 15 years ago who have now started a whole new life for themselves and have come to a really good place in their life, and this is just the next step that they want to take,” Pingel said.

The scholarship is open to any and all survivors of domestic abuse and is non-discriminatory to gender, sex, race or age. If an applicant is not accepted for the upcoming scholarship, they are always welcome to reapply later on in the year.

“The criteria for it is kind of the need, the financial need,” Pingel said. “It’s extremely, extremely hard to narrow it down. And you wish that there was enough money allocated for everybody every time they apply.”

Priority will be given to survivor applicants who are either seeking their first college degree, have been referred by a local domestic violence program or have completed the Allstate Foundation Financial Empowerment Curriculum.

The coalition’s website says, “The Alice Barton Scholarship Program was founded by Roxanne Conlin, her brother Raymond Barton and her sister Rhoda Olsen in honor of their mother Alice Barton, a survivor of domestic violence.”

Conlin is an Iowa trial attorney and longtime supporter of the coalition. Barton is the founder and chairman of the board of Great Clips, Inc. and Olsen is the company’s CEO. 

The deadline to apply for the winter 2016 scholarship is Nov. 1, 2015. Applications can be found on the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence’s website, www.icadv.org.

For Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the coalition also hosted a campaign that involved replacing lights outside your home or office with a purple bulb to show support for domestic violence victims. There was also the 31 Day Challenge that shows ways you can take a stand and raise awareness for domestic violence, as well as #purplethursday, a hashtag and campaign that asked people to wear purple to raise awareness for the issue.