Third Annual Silent March at SUNY Rockland Community College Commemorates October As Domestic Violence Awareness Month

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: October 4, 2007

CONTACT: Lisa Saunders

(845) 574-4244

Third Annual Silent March at SUNY Rockland Community College Commemorates
October As Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Suffern, NY - To commemorate October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, SUNY Rockland Community College students are organizing a silent march across campus to heighten awareness of domestic, dating and sexual violence.

Staff and volunteers from the Rockland Family Shelter will also be taking part in the march called "Walk With Me." It is part of a state-wide initiative to bring attention to domestic violence by organizing silent marches on college campuses. The march will begin at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 25, in the Student Lounge, 2nd floor of the Student Union. Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee will speak and read the N.Y.S. Proclamation. Q&A to follow. The event is free and open to the public.

Marchers will walk silently through the halls and on campus, some holding signs and encouraging others to join them. Information on access to resources will be distributed by Rockland Family Shelter staff. Following the march there will be time allotted for questions, group and private discussions. The event will also include the Silent Witness display—life-size plywood cut-outs representing actual women who died as a result of domestic violence.

During Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the College is also displaying the Clothesline Project in the Atrium of the Cultural Arts Center on the main campus in Suffern. Sixty t-shirts expressing the emotions of Rockland County women affected by domestic violence are hanging on a clothesline to be viewed by others as testimony to the problem of violence against women.

Bronx Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera initiated the "Walk With Me" project that takes place during the last week of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. She asked Governor Pataki proclaim this a statewide event to bring attention to the plight of those abused as well as to call for an end to tolerance of abusers.

The event is sponsored by the College's Office of Student Involvement and supported by the Rockland Family Shelter. For further information, contact John Marra, Coordinator of Student Activities and Volunteer Services, at (845) 574-4302. The Rockland Family Shelter offers a 24-hour confidential hotline for survivors of sexual domestic and or dating violence at (845) 634-3344. Services are culturally sensitive, multilingual and available to the LGBT community.

###

Rockland Community College, a unit of the State University of New York, is located 25 miles northwest of NYC. The majority of its students transfer to four-year colleges, and many find immediate employment upon earning their associate's degree or certificate. The College also offers others, from preschoolers to senior citizens, the opportunity to simply learn something new. Quality education...at a price you can afford.