Last Thursday, Hammond Mayor Mayson Foster proclaimed that the month of October will be officially recognized as Domestic Violence Awareness Month during a ceremony held on campus.
Until Foster’s proclamation, the city of Hammond has only officially celebrated Domestic Violence Awareness Week and will now recognize the entire month. According to Foster, Hammond does not have a big problem with domestic abuse, but it still shouldn’t be ignored.
“We have been supporting Domestic Violence Awareness Week for as long as I have been mayor, so about ten years now,” said Foster. “It is an issue that needs to be brought to the attention of the public and not be swept under the rug. The city of Hammond is very fortunate; we don’t have too many cases that come up, but just one is too many.”
Tangipahoa Sheriff Daniel Edwards was also present at the ceremony. According to Edwards, domestic abuse can be found everywhere, but Southeast Louisiana and Tangipahoa in particular is not setting any records. However, Edwards holds a similar view to that of Foster.
“One is too many, and we’ve had way more than one,” he said on reports of domestic abuse. “I can tell you that reports of domestic violence have held steady since I became sheriff. That’s discouraging in a way, but they haven’t increased.”
According to Edwards, out of the approximate 35,000 service calls his office receives a year, between 100 and 200 are reports of harassment or abuse.
The ceremony was held at 5:30 p.m. in the War Memorial Student Union Park and was hosted by the Southeast Advocates for Family Empowerment (SAFE) and Delta Psi Epsilon Christian sorority. The ceremony also featured performances by the Southeastern Gospel Choir and the Praise in Motion dance group. Testimonies from domestic abuse survivors, investigators and judges were also a major component of educating those in attendance of the prevalence and the dangers of abuse in Louisiana.
“We decided to host this after we realized that not everyone knew that October was Domestic Violence Awareness month,” said Syrina Terrell, a member of Delta Psi Epsilon. “There were a lot of awareness programs being held on campus throughout the semester, so we wanted to bring something that no one had seen yet.”
Markeshia Desselles, SAFE’s community liaison, contacted Foster and organized the ceremony.
“He was very personable and he responded very quickly,” said Desselles. “He had something like this in the past, so he knew what to do. He put it on his calendar, and here he is; we’re very thankful he could come out tonight.”
SAFE is currently working on their website, but have a fully functional Facebook page. For more information on the group and domestic abuse, search Southeast Advocates for Family Empowerment on Facebook.