‘Purple Light Nights’ domestic violence awareness campaign comes to Fort St. John

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — An organizer leading a new domestic violence awareness campaign launching next month in Fort St. John says it was inspired by what he noticed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Fort St. John RCMP detachment and the Women’s Resource Society have partnered for the Purple Light Nights initiative, a local iteration of an international campaign to raise awareness of intimate partner violence during October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Constable Chad Neustaeter, a media relations officer with the RCMP detachment and the main organizer of the campaign locally, said in an interview on the September 19th episode of This Week in the Peace the idea for the initiative came from trends he noticed over the last few years.

“During Covid, there was a lot of things that happened,” Neustaeter said. “One of the things that happened from a police perspective is that I saw intimate partner violence appear to be on the rise.”

Neustaeter decided he wanted to do something about it, which led to him discovering Purple Light Nights.

“I hadn’t seen [this] done in our community, and I thought it was something that potentially I could spearhead and partner with people to bring,” he said. 

“There happened to be a file last year where I was photographing somebody, a victim of intimate partner violence, and it just really shook me,” he added. “I wanted to do something about this.”

Estefania Albornoz, the Women’s Resource Society’s community engagement and fundraising manager, said she hopes the campaign will help people understand that intimate partner violence can happen in any relationship.

“Violence has no gender,” she said. “Intimate partner violence can happen to women and men, and it’s important to raise awareness because 67 per cent of women will do the work and enter counselling to stop the cycle of violence, but only two per cent of men choose to participate in counselling.”

Albornoz also said domestic violence can be psychological and emotional, rather than just physical.

The Purple Light Nights campaign urges participants to wear purple and leave purple lights on outside their homes in the evenings to raise awareness of domestic violence.

A kick-off event for the awareness campaign is open to the public and being held on October 1st in Centennial Park, with burgers and hot dogs available for attendees starting at 5:30 p.m. and an explanation of the program starting at 6 p.m.

“We’re hoping to, about once a week throughout the month of October, have various events where people are already gathering or meeting,” Neustaeter added. 

Those events include Fort St. John Huskies and Flyers hockey games and appearances at the local high school and farmer’s market.

To read more about the Purple Light Nights campaign, visit its Facebook page and website. To view the full interview with Neustaeter and Albornoz, look below.