Talking About Domestic Violence One Purple Purse At A Time

This post is part of a sponsored campaign with The Allstate Foundation and MomSelect. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Domestic violence happens more than 145 times each hour in the U.S. and on average, three women die every day as a result. It affects more women than breast cancer, ovarian cancer and lung cancer combined. You’d think with how prevalent it is, more people would be talking about it but they aren’t mostly because people don’t know what to say and how to help a victim.

Lacking financial knowledge and resources is the number one indicator of whether a domestic violence victim will stay, leave or return to an abusive relationship. Many people don’t realize that women who are victims of domestic violence are usually subject to financial abuse along with the physical abuse. They often face financial restrictions and are given limited access, if any, to bank accounts, important documents, and information about shared assets. This makes it even harder to escape the situations they find themselves in.

To get people talking about domestic violence, The Allstate Foundation created Purple Purse and PurplePurse.com. The Purple Purse was created because a purse represents the center of a woman’s financial domain and purple is the color utilized by domestic violence awareness campaigns. The website appears to be an online fashion magazine, but when the user looks more deeply, she will find a safe place with a variety of information and resources specific to the issue of domestic violence and financial empowerment.

As part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, The Allstate Foundation is sending more than 1,000 purses carrying domestic violence information throughout the country. The purses will be passed between co-workers, friends, and family, sparking important conversations along the way. For every purple purse passed through the end of October, The Allstate Foundation will donate $5 to YWCA and will give up to $350,000 for programs aimed to help domestic violence survivors and stop the cycle of abuse.

If you don’t get your hands on one of the purple purses that are being passed around the country, you can still help by logging onto Facebook.com/PurplePurse and sharing a virtual purple purse. Each time a virtual purple purse is shared or re-shared, they will make a $5 donation to YWCA.

(Disclosure: Information and images provided to me by sponsor.)