King's turning purple to raise awareness of Shine the Light campaign

King’s has turned the campus purple for the month of November, as a way to raise awareness of the London’s Abused Women’s Centre’s Shine the Light on Woman Abuse campaign. The wall wash lights mounted on the Wemple Hall building and the King Student Life Center will shine purple for the month.  There are also purple bows put up in various locations across campus.

“The Shine the Light campaign is one of a range of critical awareness campaigns to educate our community about gender-based violence. We have made strong investments at King’s in training, in policy changes, and in the development of new resources, but we must continue to support organizations like our partners at London Abused Women’s Centre to lead conversations about ending men's violence against women and girls,” says Joe Henry, Dean of Students.

On November 15, all members of the King's community are encouraged to wear purple. Purple is a symbol of courage, survival, and honour, and has come to symbolize the fight to end woman abuse. All members of the King's community wearing purple on campus on November 15 are invited to gather in Wemple Hall lobby at 11:30 a.m. for a photo that will be shared on King's social media platforms.

The Shine the Light on Woman Abuse campaign was launched in 2010 in London, Ontario, and continues to spread across Canada and beyond. In 2017, communities in Sweden and Australia adopted the campaign, bringing it to the international level.

Each year, the Shine the Light campaign brings awareness to the issue of men's violence against women by turning communities purple for the month of November. Participants show their solidarity with abused women and support them in understanding that any shame and/or blame they may feel does not belong to them but the perpetrators of their abuse. The campaign acts as a beacon of hope while reminding us there is still much work to be done about men’s violence against women. Shine the Light on Woman Abuse is an opportunity for everyone to reflect, learn, listen, and have open conversations to create change.

King’s continues to work on promoting and maintaining a safe and respectful working and learning environment. This is a shared responsibility. Please visit the Gender and Sexual Violence page of the Safe Campus website of the King’s website for more information on services and resources for members of our campus community.

King’s has also taken continued to take steps to increase personal safety including:

• An increase in the security presence on cam
• Upgrades to lighting in parking lots
• Installing Help buttons at parking gates that provide a direct line to Security
• Installing additional lighting in various locations on campus