3:20pm | The Women’s Shelter of Long Beach will hold a candlelight vigil and walk this evening in downtown Long Beach, honoring survivors of domestic violence and to shed light on the situation.
The walk will begin at 6:00pm tonight at Promenade and 1st Street downtown, and participants are encouraged to wear purple clothing in solidarity and bring signs if they would like. This is the fourth annual event hosted by the Women’s Shelter and organizers are expecting to attract about 300 participants in the walk tonight.
“It really does bring awareness to domestic violence,” says Giovanna Martinez, youth services coordinator for the Women’s Shelter. “It definitely helps people come together because it’s for a cause that everyone can agree should not be happening.”
Martinez and other walk organizers will read off names of victims who were killed in domestic violence incidents in Los Angeles County in the past year, as a warning and reminder of the seriousness of the problem. She says they are hoping for more youth to attend this year, to spread education that domestic violence is not acceptable in any home.
“It really brings our people who maybe have grown up in a home like this and can say, ‘This happened to me and it shouldn’t have.'”
Other supporting groups include the Long Beach Police Department’s Women’s Advisory Group, Food Finders, Project Safe and End Abuse Long Beach.