October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and the Crisis Center of West Texas wants people who are survivors or victims know that they are not alone and that there is always help.
The Crisis Center of West Texas held an awareness event Thursday on the campus of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin to honor and remember those who survived and those who were killed by their partners in this region.
Prevention Services Director at the Crisis Center Elizabeth Teixeira said that last year, there was a harrowing number of people who were victims of domestic violence.
“In the state of Texas, 228 people were killed by their partners from 2020 which is the highest we have for anytime we’ve done a statewide report like this,” Teixeira said.
Across the country and around the world, calls about domestic violence have been up since the pandemic began.
“What we want to stress is that it is not stressful situations that cause domestic violence,” Teixeira said. “Domestic violence is caused by a pattern of corrosive behavior to gain and maintain control over someone’s intimate partner but often times, stressful situations can create and make domestic violence more dangerous.”
Teixeira also said that from October 2019 to this month, there have been 11 people in the Crisis Center of West Texas’ region who have been killed by their partners.
“That includes a 15 county region that spans from Big Spring over to Pecos and Fort Stockton is included in that as well,” Teixeira said.
During the event, Kat Engebretson who is a UTPB graduate from 2017 and a survivor of intimate partner violence told her story about her experience and what it’s like to seek help as a survivor as well as the hope that exists on the other side of leaving a violent relationship.
“I think it’s very important for me and a lot of other people that I’ve spoken to share their stories because that helps in that healing process,” Engebretson said. “Two years ago, I would’ve been too shy to do it but I felt like I was in the right space this time to do it.”
About eight people from the Crisis Center of West Texas had a table set up on campus at UTPB.
After Engebretson spoke, members at UTPB told the stories of those who did not survive domestic violence.
At the end of the event, each person grabbed a flower and walked around the courtyard on campus.
“The message from today is that by gathering as a community, we send a message that people are not alone when they are in violent relationships,” Teixeira said. “There’s a community of support available to them. If they are experience violence, they can reach out for help and find support around them. There’s hope on the other side of a violent relationship.”
