A campaign that aims to raise awareness about violence against women unexpectedly ended up raising six-figures for the London Abused Women’s Centre (LAWC).
The agency announced on Friday that the ninth annual Shine the Light on Woman Abuse campaign brought in a whopping $128,509. The donations, raised between October 19 and November 30, came from campaign sponsors, Shoppers Drug Mart, businesses, area families, and individuals.
The money will be used to hire two new frontline employees at the agency at a time when the demand for service has reached unprecedented levels.
"Over the six week period of the Shine the Light on Woman Abuse campaign, we received 938 calls for help from abused women and girls. This is an increase in service demand that we have never seen before," said LAWC Fund Development Coordinator Fabienne Haller. "At the London Abused Women's Centre, we have a mandate to give service to every woman and girl within one week of their contacting the agency. With the volume of calls we were receiving, we didn't know how we would be able to continue to do this until the results came in of this year's generous support from the community... We can now ensure that we are able to address the growing need of counselling for abused women and girls."
This year's campaign honoured Shainee Chalk, a 28-year-old revenge-porn survivor, and two-time Canadian national boxing champion Maddison Fraser, who was lured into the sex trade and killed in an Edmonton car crash in 2015. The car was being driven by an impaired man, who was believed to have been a sex purchaser.
In a show of solidarity for abused women and girls, countless buildings and monuments throughout the city and country were bathed in purple light throughout November as part of the Shine the Light campaign. On November 15, people throughout the community wore purple to show their support for the cause. The colour purple is a symbol of courage, survival, and honour.
On Twitter, the Shine the Light hashtag trended nationally. The agency is hopeful it can continue to build on the momentum that was created by this year's campaign.
"Word is getting around on the global level. We need to continue to raise awareness," said Haller. "A very big piece is social media that we continue to utilize. We continue to be involved with as many organizations as we can because that is how we can spread the word. Another large part is word of mouth from women who have had service here."
