On Oct. 20, OASIS, along with the Counseling Center, Family Justice Center and Branch House Family Justice Center, hosted the Red Flag Campaign on campus, a national event held during Domestic Violence/Intimate Partner Violence Awareness month.
“It really is kind of a bystander event. We’re just trying to show people what the red flags in relationships are, unhealthy relationships. It could be very possible that someone thinks a particular behavior is normal and acceptable, but when they actually see it written on one of these flags, that makes them go ‘wait a minute, I shouldn’t be putting up with this,’” said Cynthia Millhorn, the graduate assistant for OASIS.
This event is important to inform patrons on what to look for in both healthy and unhealthy relationships, especially for college students who may just be entering their first relationships.
“This is when a lot of people are entering adulthood, and they’re starting to establish patterns and relationships. Maybe they have experienced relationship violence, which could be verbal, physical, mental, sexual, everything. They may have witnessed it growing up, or they may be brand new to having these types of relationships. And this is where we see these patterns start,” Millhorn said.
Patrons could gather materials containing statistics concerning relationship violence, recognizing these red flags and how to go about seeking help.
They also were able to view the field of actual red flags beside the table.
“If you look at the flags that we have out, the importance of it is not just to show people how numerous or how common this is, but just to see that there are a number of things that people think are ok, that they accept, really are not,” said Millhorn.
The event closed with speakers from the Storytelling Center reciting their stories of domestic violence.
If students want to get involved in preventing sexual assault on campus, they can email OASIS at oasis@etsu.edu.
