By Mike Mulford SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News)– Vera House, Inc. released its 29th annual report on domestic violence and sexual assault on Thursday, October 4th.
The report includes various statistics from its findings as well as information from local authorities. These statistics show the situation of Onondaga County as well as the City of Syracuse specifically.
Randi Bregman, executive director of Vera House, Inc., said that the report is deeper than just statistics.
“Those numbers represent people’s lives,” she said.
The report included statistics on things like arrests made for domestic violence, the services that Vera House can offer the community and a side-by-side comparison to previous years’ statistics. The numbers, however, do not reveal the entire truth of the issue of domestic violence and sexual assault, because so many victims are held back from coming forward.
“You have no idea why people don’t say what happened to them,” said George Kilpatrick, men’s outreach program director for Vera House.
Both Bregman and Kilpatrick called upon bystanders to stand up and take initiative. The effort to abolish this violence, they say, must be a group one.
“There’s no end game here,” Kilpatrick added. “Where do boys learn to be boys? Well, they learn it from men. We have to change what messages we’re sending to boys.”
Bregman began working at Vera House in 1990 and says the progress the community has made toward safety is tremendous.
More information about the report can be found at www.verahouse.org
