At the October 28 joint Soldotna Kenai chamber luncheon the LeeShore Center was recognized for their community outreach to address domestic violence.
Kenai District Attorney Scott Leaders detailed what constitutes as domestic violence.
Leaders: “Well domestic violence is any act of violence in that it can be a broad sense, it doesn’t have to be necessarily physical violence, it can be placing someone in fear of physical violence certainly, and in a domestic relationship, so some type of spousal relationship, significant other, it can include children, parents.”
He gave statistics that were collected via a phone survey of approximately one thousand women on the Kenai Peninsula in 2013 by the Alaska Victimization Study.
Leaders: “Some of the astounding facts are out of every 100 women, 43 had experienced intimate partner violence or some form of physical domestic violence in their lifetime, out of every 100 women 30 had been victims of sexual violence, and as a combined statistic, over half, better than one in every two women had either been the victim of domestic violence or sexual violence in their lifetime.”
Leaders added that outreach through state and local programs has moved awareness forward which is a good sign but there is still a long ways to go.
Leaders: “I look at breaking it down into three things that should really be doing or can be doing to help change in this area of domestic violence: educate, communicate, and participate.”
Tonight at the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting Mayor Mike Navarre will proclaim October 2014 as “Domestic Violence Awareness Month.”
