October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

National Domestic Violence Hotline — 800-799-7233

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA.) - I have seen the terrible toll on victims of domestic violence as a former volunteer at the Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic (CROC) in San Francisco, helping victims of domestic violence with free legal services for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

Statistics show that one-in-four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime, and every year nearly 5.3 million incidents of intimate partner violence occur among U.S. women aged 18 and older. This is simply intolerable.

If you are dealing with abuse or witnessing abuse in your household, please don’t ignore it.

Here are some actions you can take: tell someone, call the police, document the abuse, call a domestic abuse helpline (National Domestic Violence Hotline — 800-799-7233), leave the relationship, create a safety plan.

Domestic abuse should never be tolerated or allowed to continue in any form.