Blog 5a.

Problem Statement

1.  My topic is Domestic Violence 
2. The main issue in my topic is that people are not as aware of how big of an issue this is as they should be and it is almost seen as normal. To solve this problem I would help with the advertising of organizations such as House of Ruth to show victims of abuse that there are other alternatives for them and also to show people that they can help in the process of stopping the violence by volunteering.  Once I solve this problem, and people are more aware, I can start prevention groups to stop the abuse cycle and also support groups for people who have been victimized and now realize that it is wrong and not normal. 
3. Another issue would be that not enough men are involved in volunteering at organizations such as House of Ruth. This is an issue because even though men can be abused too, the main victims are women and if we have more men who volunteer they can give speeches and presentations showing other young men and/or adults that abuse is wrong and there are other way to take out anger and have a healthy relationship. It is hard for women to give these types of speeches to other men because they can't really relate but if there was a non-abusing man up there doing a presentation, it could show other men that it is good not to abuse, they need someone to relate too. What I would do to solve this problem would be to show non-abusing men that organizations like House of Ruth or Project sister are not only for women to work at. To show them, we could maybe advertise organizations like the ones I mentioned above in ways that men would be able to relate to, like show them they can be involved and help out in ways that are "masculine" by like, lets say, teaching children who are in the shelters to play sports. Once this problem is solved and more men are volunteering, we can send them out to do prevention assemblies in places like the Boys Republic or high schools to stop the violence because I think if we can get boys/men to help abusers change their ways, the abuse rates could potentially go way down!

UPDATED PROBLEMS

• Violence is normalized
• Victims are blamed
• House of Ruth lacks staff, resources and funding
• House of Ruth is not able to "get into" every home because victims are isolated
• Abuse is a cycle
• Men are too afraid to speak up if they are being abused because they are embarrassed or feel less masculine
• Victims are too afraid to admit or tell someone that they are being abused