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Ahead of October, representatives from the Freeborn County Crime Victims Crisis Center attended the Albert Lea City Council meeting on Monday to shine a light on Domestic Violence Awareness Month and to encourage others in the community to get involved in the effort.

According to the staff present at the meeting on Monday, the Freeborn County Crime Victims Crisis Center last year alone served 425 victims of domestic violence in the community.

That includes both children and adults.

According to Violence Free Minnesota, a statewide coalition of programs working to end relationship abuse, at least 22 people were killed due to intimate partner homicide in 2022, and 40 were confirmed victims of intimate partner homicide in 2023.

On a national level, an average of 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. That equates to more than 12 million women and men over the course of a single year.

To speak out against domestic violence, Freeborn County Crime Victims Crisis Center staff are organizing a Paint the Town Purple campaign, encouraging people to place a purple sign in their yards about the issue or to light up their homes or businesses with a purple light bulb during the month of October.

Signs and bulbs will be given out free of charge from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 1 outside the Freeborn County Government Center at the picnic table by the law enforcement parking lot. If there is inclement weather, they will be inside the government center lobby.

If you can’t make it during that time, contact the Crime Victims Crisis Center at 377-5460 during regular working hours to set up a time to pick up these items.

We encourage residents to get involved in this effort and to spread the word to their friends and neighbors.

Show the community you stand against this behavior and that you support those who have been victims of it.