Creating Lasting Change this Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Every October, we honor Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM) by continuing to promote healing spaces, safety, and community to all survivors. This year’s theme, “With Survivors, Always,” emphasizes how support and outreach are all about lasting, evolving, and survivor-centered action.

At Our Wave, we stand “With Survivors, Always” by building digital spaces rooted in connection, compassion, and collective healing. No one has to navigate recovery alone.

This article explores how communities and organizations can show up for DVAM. We all know the impact of donating, speaking out about the cause, and volunteering. But there are countless ways to stand with survivors through everyday actions, online spaces, and sustained, long-term support that helps create lasting change.

Why Safety, Support, and Solidarity Matter

As years of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) and DVAM pass, there are many calls of action, posts of solidarity, and content to promote survivor safety and support. Every one of these efforts matters. Because behind every new theme, there is an important message.

Standing with survivors means standing in solidarity with them. It’s a long-term commitment. It means creating survivor-centered action beyond SAAM in April and DVAM in October. Our Wave stands for solidarity through creating digital tools and communities that can empower survivors to heal, connect, and lead systemic change.

Domestic violence can affect all areas of survivor’s lives. There’s no simple healing path that is a cure-all approach. It’s a long, winding, and zigzagged road. That’s why standing with survivors is a lasting commitment.

“Healing is an ongoing process. It’s like the weather, up and down. Some days my emotions are like a tornado. I try to remember more happy memories because some things I forget. I can’t forget that Saturday night or the vividness that persists. I hope as I age and create more and more memories of happy moments it will snuff out these burning embers that are there every single day. It’s not easy to forget something like this …..”
-   A Survivor’s Message of Healing from the Our Wave platform

Every year, you probably hear all about the common forms of support and ways you can give back to social justice organizations. There’s donating, raising awareness, and supporting prevention efforts. These actions matter, and while each DVAM theme is different, the heart of this movement is standing together in awareness, action, and accountability to create real change for survivors.

Additionally, supporting survivors means rethinking how we create spaces of safety, community, and healing every single day. These small actions of support are just as important as the overarching pathways of awareness and prevention.

Layers of Impact to Support Survivors during DVAM (and Beyond)

Instead of providing a list of awareness initiatives and prevention strategies, this structure offers ways to support survivors that focuses on personal choices, community engagement, and digital advocacy. 

Personal actions to support survivors

Even if something seems like a small action to you, it can be incredibly meaningful for someone else. You can support a survivor by simply listening without judgement and checking in to see how they are doing. A few minutes of research every day on how to be trauma-informed in daily interactions can go a long way when speaking with a survivor. Plus, by amplifying survivor voices you are already lifting them up and helping them toward a pathway to healing.

Community actions during DVAM

During DVAM, and continuing into the final months of the year, many organizations push their fundraising efforts. Donating to local organizations is a strong way to show your support. But giving money is not the only action that you can take. Reach out about volunteering, engage in any prevention campaigns that might be going on, and advocate for large policy changes going through current laws.

Digital actions to support survivors

If you don’t have the time or resources to donate or volunteer, consider showing up for survivors digitally. The Our Wave Community Platform provides ways for advocates to leave survivors a Message of Support. Curated resources are also available, along with access to FAQs with a trauma-informed specialist.

Technology can often feel distant or impersonal, but we’re using it to bring people closer. The platform was built by survivors, for survivors. Its trauma-informed design is meant to meet people where they are in their healing journeys and encourage survivors to keep going, transforming technology into a tool for good, not for harm.

Long-term support actions

Continued action drives lasting impact and change. Ultimately, these small actions can lead to long-term support. The goal is to build a culture of continued accountability. Educating youth on healthy relationships and supporting research and survivor-led initiatives are ways to support long-term change.

Our Wave’s Role: Beyond Awareness

While showing up during DVAM is important, it’s the people and organizations that stay connected to survivor support year-round that count. The Our Wave Community platform is a way for survivors connect, be in community, and access healing resources any time, from any place.

Storytelling allows survivors to reclaim their narratives, externalize their trauma, and reduce feelings of shame and self-blame. Narrative therapy, in particular, helps survivors see themselves beyond the trauma, focusing on strength, agency, and survival rather than guilt or powerlessness. This reauthoring process supports healing by providing new perspectives on their experience and identity.

The Our Wave digital community platform offers anonymous, trauma-informed spaces for survivors to share stories, receive peer support, and contribute to collective healing and resource development. The online space emphasizes both privacy and empowerment, leading to messages of hope and healing in the majority of shared survivor stories.

Storytelling reinforces to survivors that they are more than their trauma. It provides a sense of agency to their story and validates their experience. By connecting with other survivors and leaving messages of hope and healing, story-sharing platforms aid in collective healing and community.

“Obviously knowing that I'm not alone, that even though more than a decade has passed and that I'm very happily married to a kind and loving man, that this pain stays with me. On my children's birthdays I always struggle remembering how he abused me while I was in labor and recovering from childbirth. That is something very hard to share. Speak Your Truth allowed me to not be alone with those memories for the first time”
-   Snippet of a survivor’s story from the NO MORE Silence, Speak Your Truth platform

As each SAAM and DVAM passes, we continue to listen, adapt, and believe in community-driven healing pathways and digital solidarity. Every survivor Story, Message of Support, Question, and Resource request helps us evolve the platform, so we can continue building online support for survivors to feel safe, trusted, and empowered.

Listening. Believing. Supporting. Always.

This year’s DVAM theme represents showing up for survivors consistently, intentionally, and with empathy. Being “With Survivors, Always” means listening when their stories are shared, speaking out when silence harms, and investing in spaces that center survivor voices.

This month, and every month after, we invite you to join us in reimagining what true support looks like.

🌊 If you’re an advocate, join the Our Wave community platform and leave a Message of Support.

🌊 If you’re a survivor, explore the platform for collective healing methods, whether that’s through sharing your experience (either in narrative or artwork format), reading other stories and survivor Q&As, viewing the Messages of Support, Healing, and Hope, asking your own questions about what happened, or accessing curated resources.

We hear you. We believe in you. We stand by you. Your voice matters, always.