Angie Linsenman
Counseling Program Director
Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan

Word spreads faster than ever now. We are connecting and sharing information unlike we ever have before as a nation and as a community. We are witnessing important and meaningful topics quickly going viral on social media. It was not very long ago many were sharing their feelings with colleagues, friends and family that our entertainment and sports industries were beginning to acknowledge and address violence against women. Today, colleagues, friends and family are sharing feelings about how our whole nation is acknowledging and addressing violence against women, girls and boys. It is happening everywhere now from our largest cities to our smallest towns where we all know each other’s name.

Along with this information sharing and our collective awakening to the magnitude of the issue of violence against women and girls, comes a level of responsibility. Fortunately, all communities have the power to change social norms. Historically, we have spent a lot of time analyzing the behavior of survivors and often blaming them. Let us now start to look at how we respond as a community. How do we show support and respect for survivors and how do we hold perpetrators accountable? We are a community full of diverse people and we need to be realistic about the possibilities for our own community and everyone’s safety. We need to hold perpetrators accountable and focus on how our actions impact a change to help end violence.

We have the opportunity and privilege to choose what information we want to share about violence against women and children. Let’s really think about what that information should be and how we want to share it. Have conversations with your family and within your social and professional networks. Have those difficult conversations about how the things we say and the things we do impact others. Hold meaningful conversations on how to end violence and raise boys and girls to respect one another equally.

Let us keep hope close and let us find solutions in our community. Take this momentum home with you, take this momentum to work with you and start those conversations about what messages you want to send. Once you start having these important conversations, positive change will start to happen. We are living in a new era. A time, in which, we show our support to survivors and allow healing to begin. Let us embrace this time with our eyes wide open and our hearts full of kindness and respect for one another.

Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan (WRCNM) provides counseling, advocacy and confidential support services at no cost to survivors of domestic abuse, sexual assault and child sexual assault/abuse in Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Emmet and Otsego counties. For support or to learn more call the WRCNM’s 24-hour crisis and information line, at (231) 347-0082 or (800) 275-1995.