Organizations hold domestic violence prevention training seminar

LEXINGTON, Ky (WTVQ)- Dawn Runyon understands domestic violence situations better than most people.

“While my mother was doing everything she could to protect me from the individuals she was dealing with, what she didn’t know is that i was being sexually abused by an older family member starting at the age of three,” says Runyon.

Runyon would go through many more domestic violence situations. But she says when she was older a bystander recognized the harm she was in and stepped in to help.

“It was because of a by stander who was not in my circle, in my situation, but saw what was happening and made a choice to save my life.”

Runyon now works at Green Dot Lexington, an organization that provides information and help train people and communities in domestic violence prevention.
The organization partnered with One Lexington for a training seminar teaching Bystander Awareness Intervention.

“It’s not always that physical. You don’t always see the physical but you may hear it or hear of it, right. You may hear the comments or you see the intimidation,” says Runyon.

The seminar explained types of power based personal violence, including stalking, sexual abuse, elder abuse. It also helps people recognize harmful behaviors and provides options available to help them safely intervene.

“There are more than ten million people who are being victimized by power based personal violence every year in the united states. That’s like twenty people every minute. That’s too much,” says Runyon.

Runyon says it takes one person at a time to change the culture of domestic violence situations in the city.
For more information about Green Dot Lexington, click here.