Domestic Violence Awareness Month has historically been October of each year, but nationally the month has been changed to May beginning next year.

Because we as progressive Natchezians, want to be in the forefront of the domestic violence movement, we will begin this May with our campaign to draw attention to this very dangerous part of our society.

I have read the local newspaper recently with increasing alarm at the reports of severe domestic violent acts that are affecting women in our communities.

Nationally, Rihanna and Chris Brown continue to dominate the headlines of the young and wealthy in America as domestic violence crosses all barriers of race, nationality, income and social status.

In the United States alone recent statistics estimate that intimate partners assault over 1.5 million women a year. Young women ages 16-24 years of age have the highest rate of domestic violence. It is also estimated that between 3-4 million children between the ages of 3 and 17 years are at risk of exposure to domestic violence situations each year.

Many women report that they have been able to prevent exposing their children to the violence they themselves experience. But 80-90 percent of children living in homes where there is violence are aware of the violence. Children who are exposed to domestic violence acts are at greater risk for becoming either a victim of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse or an adult perpetrator of domestic violence.

We at The Guardian Shelter for Battered Families, provide shelter to women and children who have suffered all types of abuse. We have witnessed a 3-year-old female who, as the result of the attempted physical abuse to her mother, received a broken leg. In order to protect the other two children in the home as well as herself, the mother sought safety at our facility.

The older children who very often try to intervene when they begin to witness the physical aggression of the perpetrator, to the mother, report the desire to harm to the abuser who is sometimes their own father. Children report feeling afraid the hours they are in their homes and afraid for their mothers when they are not in the home. Children report feeling the abuse is somehow their fault because perpetrators never accept the responsibility of their own behaviors. A person who is controlling and abusive blames everyone else for the problems in their lives.

Having recently attended a Teen Violence Conference held in Natchez, I learned that a high percentage of young people are struggling to have healthy relationships and women are the largest group of teen dating abuse victims.

Public awareness for both parents and children will decrease the epidemic we face as a concerned community to the effects of aggression and out of control behaviors that appear to be rampant in many areas. Teens today seem to have a belief that abuse both verbal and physical is justified. Education and the provision of safe havens for all victims will allow our children of the future to be able to learn that successful, healthy relationships are attainable.

The Guardian Shelter for Battered Families is the only shelter in the 11-county area that we serve that provides shelter for both women and children.

Our focus is on the entire family. We work diligently to assist all customers of our services to develop a plan that will allow them to live free of violence. We provide a 24-hour service and our staff is trained to assist victims in all situations.

Our facility is a 30-45 day facility that allows families to initiate contact with all of the community resources that will allow them to relocate to an environment that is safe and secure. A child’s ability to feel secure in their home enhances their chances to be productive in school, church, and community activities. We are a Catholic Charities agency and we are committed to the victims of domestic violence. It is our belief that community education will allow our children of the future to live in a society that may become free of violence.

Our program is planning a fundraiser in May of this year to be able to provide the needed services for the battered women and children of Domestic Violence. Our victims are in need of many services that are at risk of being unavailable to them due to budget cuts in all our funding sources. We are selling $100 drawdown raffle tickets now for a $5,000 pot.

We hope the community can support our efforts as we continue to strive to provide this valuable service to the women and children of southwest Mississippi.

Please contact us at 601-442-0142 or 1-800-273-6938 if you have any questions about our organization or know someone who is in need of our services.

Donna Miller is the director of the Guardian Shelter.