Oxford County participates in first Purple Bench campaign

Oxford County will be participating in the purple bench campaign for the first time, to raise awareness on domestic violence and prevention. (Sophie Foster Photo).

Emily Stewart

Purple benches across Oxford County are aiming to raise awareness of intimate partner violence and prevention.

Domestic Abuse Services Oxford (DASO), Ingamo Homes and the Oxford Domestic Abuse Resource Team (DART) will be participating in the Purple Bench Campaign for the first time. It was created as a result of a 2015 public art project in Spryfield, Nova Scotia, and honored Barbara Baillie, a mother of five killed on Oct. 19, 1990. She found comfort in park benches when escaping her husband’s abuse.

The purple benches represent hope and resilience and will feature plaques with emergency contact information for those experiencing intimate partner violence.

"It feels really, really good,” Sophie Foster, DASO fundraising and communications coordinator, said about participating. “It's something that you can actually see. It's a tangible thing that we're putting in our community and I feel like it's, in a way, raising our flag for advocacy about gender-based violence, so I'm  excited to start doing the unveilings and seeing them being put up in all around Oxford County."

Woodstock’s Maglin Site Furniture created eight benches for each municipality in Oxford County - Woodstock, Ingersoll, Tillsonburg, Norwich, Southwest Oxford, Zorra, East Zorra-Tavistock, and Blanford-Blenheim. Since announcing participation in the Purple Bench campaign on Facebook on Oct. 30, there’s been plenty of community support.

“A lot of people have shared our post and commented saying how excited they are it’s coming here,” Foster said. “I think a lot of people didn't know about the campaign, but now that it's here, I think people are really excited to see what we're doing. Again, something tangible that we can see and honour the victims.”

Foster said that the Purple Bench Campaign will bring more awareness and prevention regarding gender-based violence in Oxford County. She said many people are unaware of what DASO and Ingamo Homes do, and how much of an issue gender-based violence is in Oxford County.

“I think because we're in a more rural community, I think a lot of people think we maybe just don't have the issue anymore or it's just a hidden issue. I'm not sure,” she said. “But the numbers continue to rise, so continuing to put this information out and put the resources out for people to understand that this is something we need to talk about as a community is just kind of a great way to do that and it's a beautiful bench, so it's a nice, pretty way to do it as well."

Over the next month, several benches will be unveiled in Oxford County.