There’s a woman we know well. We’ll call her Janie. She works for a local company whose name you’d probably recognize. Her company regularly supports causes in the community, and last October, Janie decided it was time for them to take a stand in preventing domestic violence. She gathered information and developed a daily email series to educate her fellow employees and their managers. She promoted our events for Domestic Violence Awareness Month, encouraged employees to wear purple, sponsored a bake sale to raise funds for Sheltering Wings, and arranged for the company to match donations her fellow employees made to us.
What led Janie to support our work? What made her take the initiative to develop and schedule a month’s worth of activities to make sure her coworkers and managers understood the impact of domestic violence and the role they could play in preventing it?
It’s simple. Janie knows the importance of our work because she’s a survivor. Several years ago, she left an abusive relationship for the safety of our shelter. She made a transformation from a terrified victim who wasn’t sure she even wanted a future to a women confident in her own abilities and proud of her independence. She wants others who are in abusive relationships to know there’s hope for them, too. Janie wants her coworkers to know what to do when a friend, a neighbor, a relative, or another worker confides she’s being abused.
She also knows why it’s so important for workplaces to address this issue head-on. Three out of every four victims has been harassed by their abuser while on the job, whether it’s an endless stream of threatening telephone calls or surprise visits made as a reminder that no place is safe.
Domestic abuse and its effects costs American employers more than $8 billion annually in lost productivity, higher health insurance claims, and mental health services … along with 7.9 million lost workdays. And most of the workplace shootings you’ve seen on the news have involved an abusive relationship. Often, when the victim finally gains the courage to leave, the abuser targets her in the one place he can find her: at her job.
So there’s good reason for your workplace to follow the lead of Janie’s employer and increase awareness of domestic abuse. And you don’t have to do all the work, because Sheltering Wings is ready to help. We offer free in-service presentations to educate managers and employees about the realities of domestic violence, signs that employees may be in unsafe relationships, and steps to take when abuse is suspected. We provide sound, practical advice on helping employees and protecting businesses … and we can adapt this training to your time and setting.
If you’re an employer, we’d like to talk with you about what we can do for your employees. If you’re a worker, we hope you’ll approach your supervisor or the Human Resources department to suggest they take the lead in arranging a training program. We’re not hard to find — just contact Melissa Echerd at 317-386-5061 or mecherd@shelteringwings.org. We’d love to tell Janie she’s inspired yet another company to do their part.
