A topic that can’t be avoided

We all know the stigmas attached to domestic violence, and the fears victims harbor — being ostracized, no safety net, impacts to children, just to name a few.

For years, services providers like the YWCA and women’s commissions have tried to make inroads into what is perhaps the biggest obstacle to getting help: silence.

And so when dozens of people this week marched from St. Peter Armenian Apostolic Church in Glendale to St. Leon Armenian Apostolic Church in Burbank to raise awareness about domestic violence, it was a show of bravery and much needed education for an Armenian American population that organizers say has a tendency to avoid the topic.

The march was organized to highlight the formation of a new domestic violence task force to create a resource center where victims can get help and support, or be taken to a safe place. The center, scheduled to open this fall, likely will have a central office at the Western Diocese in Burbank.

In his address to supporters, Fr. Vazken Movsesian of St. Peter Armenian Apostolic Church in Glendale said they needed “to get people to wake up and say that this is a real problem” — “this” being domestic violence, but also the silence that allows it to happen.

Organizers may have marched under the slogan “Violence Hurts, Love Conquers,” but bravery and resolve also conquer. And those two attributes were put on loud display in our communities on Monday.