Red Rose Campaign tackles domestic violence

Melissa Strle
Times Reporter

 

The Wheatland Crisis Society will be participating in the Red Rose Campaign on Dec. 6 as part of a national advocacy campaign designed to help end violence against women and girls.
On Dec. 6, business owners in Strathmore are encouraged to prominently display roses in their places of business to help raise awareness for this important campaign.
According to Carly Cole, public educator for the Wheatland Crisis Society, the program is a visual campaign.
“So we like to have it [rose] somewhere where people enter the business and where it’s going to be seen and where it’s going to be noticed and thought about and talked about,” said Cole.
The campaign takes its name from the original rose button created to commemorate 14 young women who were murdered at École Polytechnique in 1989, by calling for action on violence against women and promoting strategies to stop violence in our community.
Communities across Canada will honour the 14 young women and the campaign in their own way, such as the use of the red rose button by the Wheatland Crisis Society.
Cole has been busy raising campaign awareness and participation in Strathmore by handing out campaign information sheets to many businesses.
She has also been handing out rose cards with a tent for display. The card says that the rose is here to memorialize victims who’ve died as a result of domestic violence in Alberta.
“I have been on foot to about 135 businesses,” said Cole. “I’m hoping I’ll have contacted an additional 45 to 50, either by phone or by e-mail, about the campaign.”
The campaign has three goals: First, it is designed as a way of memorializing the victims that have died as a result of domestic violence. Second, “we just want to get it being thought about and talked about because it is still a very large issue within Canada and within our communities,” said Cole.
And the third reason for the campaign is to help ensure everyone knows the society supports a shelter in the community.
“Hopefully this will get awareness out about what we do,” said Cole.
She encourages businesses to contact her if they want to take part in this national campaign, and she had other suggestions for the public.
“I would encourage [people] on Dec. 6 to take a picture and post to their social media to raise awareness about domestic violence and everything surrounding that,” she said. “The whole goal of the campaign is to raise awareness around the issues, and the more awareness that we create, hopefully we can get these numbers to decline.”
For more information or to take part in the campaign, e-mail Cole at wcs.rsw1@wcsab.ca.