Jackson honks, waves against domestic violence
Drivers were responding to the waves of a group from the Family Advocacy Program and the Criminal Investigation Division with beeps of their car horns.
This was all part of the annual Honk and Wave event of Fort Jackson’s Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
“We started doing this probably about three years ago,” said Shenitha Shiver, victim advocate with Fort Jackson’s Army Community Service. “We’ve been trying to bring awareness to domestic violence and getting the community to understand it.”
“The honking wave is like them saying they support us out here” and are against domestic violence, Shiver added.
Shiver, who has more than 20 years’ experience as a victims advocate, was an advocate both as a civilian and a service member.
“When I first started doing this, South Carolina was ranked like in the top team for domestic violence,” she said. “We are really trying to bring awareness and educate people about healthy relationships, signs of what a healthy relationship is, and try to understand red flags so they can try to avoid domestic violence as much as possible.”
This year’s DVAM campaign is aimed at both helping victims and preventing possible domestic violence by highlighting the red flags. It aims at helping potential offenders notice the warning signs and get help before anything escalates.
“Sometimes there’s a lot of red flags; sometimes there are not,” she said. “But if we can’t get out there and educate both the offender and the victim about domestic violence … Hopefully, we can reduce or stop this from happening in our society.”
DVAM, aimed at maintaining a safe, healthy, and nurturing home environment is essential to the strength and readiness of our force throughout October, is a continuing effort.
“It’s not about one month, it’s not about one day or one week … it’s an ongoing effort,” said Col. David Gaugush, garrison commander describing the post’s domestic violence awareness program before he signed a Domestic Violence Awareness Month proclamation, Sept. 30.
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