NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) - Personal And Family Counseling Services is encouraging people to wear purple on Tuesdays in October to take a stand against domestic violence. 

Assistant Director Jamie Smith says October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and their Purple Tuesdays campaign shows support for that message, and survivors.

“And acknowledge that you as a community member, you don’t approve of it. You don't’ want to see it in our community. There’s no place here in Tuscarawas or Carroll county for domestic violence, so in order to do that, hey, let’s wear purple on Tuesdays,” she says.

Smith says part of the campaign includes education, such as letting people know that their two shelters in New Philadelphia and Carroll County provided nearly 7,000 nights of safe shelter to victims of domestic violence in 2018.

“We have a domestic violence hotline in both counties that we operate. We answer it 24/7, 365, and that’s how our victims, what we like to call survivors of abuse, they contact us and that’s how we get them into the shelter,” she says.

Smith says victims can stay at the shelters an average of three months, and PFCS offers many advocacy services over that time.

“We help with the housing. We want to help our women and children and men to leave our shelter with independent housing. We want to ensure that they’re in a safe environment so we’ll help them with that. We’ll help them with any kind of governmental assistance that they may be eligible for. We can help them with employment. We can help them with job readiness,” she says.

Smith says they want people participating in their dress-up campaign to post pictures on social media using #purpletuesdays.

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