About Us
PurpleOne is a Campaign to Empower Communities United Against Domestic Violence. Initiated by Safe Journey and their Coordinated Community Response in Union City, Pa., the campaign empowers victims and community members to take action.
What is PurpleOne?
PurpleOne empowers members of the community as potential bystanders – to assist you in becoming aware of domestic violence in our community, learning skills to safely respond to a domestic violence situation, and understanding when and how to refer a victim of domestic violence. This initiative also provides empowerment to victims of domestic violence by providing trained individuals in the community who can recognize, respond to and refer them to resources. This also provides multiple Safe Places within the community that have trained individuals who can assist them. Finally, this initiative seeks to unite the community around the eradication of domestic violence in our communities.
This initiative includes 4 Pillars:
Community Awareness. To make the community aware of domestic violence.
PurpleOne Training. The half day training offered either in-person or online – trains individuals and employees at businesses and organizations to Recognize, Respond, and Refer victims of domestic violence to the local state recognized domestic violence agencies to receive help.
Safe Places for Domestic Violence Victims. A network of Safe Places for victims to get help.
Victim Awareness. Telling victims that services are available to them through an outreach campaign and to let them know to look for the PurpleOne dot in a business window or to visit the Safe Place finder or download the Safe Place app to find a Safe Place closest to them.
How PurpleOne Came to Be
Safe Journey has been providing services for survivors of domestic violence in rural Erie County since 1978. Thanks to the expertise and compassion of Safe Journey’s trained counselor advocates, thousands of individuals over the years have transformed from vulnerable victims to thriving survivors.
Based in Union City, PA, Safe Journey serves around 600 individuals each year. But many more victims could become thriving survivors if they were aware services like ours exist. National statistics indicate that 4 out of 5 victims do not seek help. Many may not know free and confidential services are available for those experiencing domestic violence. Others, isolated by controlling abusers and without the benefit of effective support systems, may be afraid to seek help. Some don’t realize they are being victimized.
To complicate matters, a victim’s family members, friends, and co-workers often do not know enough about domestic violence to safely refer them to services. Many people in our communities are not aware comprehensive services for domestic violence survivors exist at all.
Getting survivors to services can be a heavy lift. Survivors need support and empowerment from others to escape the violence they are experiencing. They are understandably hesitant to trust. It will take an entire community; law enforcement, first responders and medical professionals; social service agencies, businesses, and general community members. Everyone needs to be educated on how and why the community mindset around domestic violence must change in order to transform countless lives for the better.
PurpleOne was developed to do just that; transform community responses to domestic violence. PurpleOne empowers survivors to seek help, creates a network of Safe Places for Domestic Violence Victims where survivors can safely get information and referrals, and educates community members on how to safely be a prosocial bystander in domestic violence situations.
PurpleOne achieves this through a 4-hour training which can be conducted in one day or in several separate sessions. Trainees can be anyone, but the training is aimed at individuals that interact with the public (and hence survivors) at community locations people trust (businesses, medical offices, hair salons, banks, social service agencies, etc.). These individuals learn how to recognize and respond to domestic violence, and how to refer victims to their local state-recognized domestic violence organizations. Locations with at least one PurpleOne-trained individual may apply to become a Safe Place. Safe Places are identified by the program’s signature PurpleOne Dot.
Safe Journey launched PurpleOne in February 2019 with support from the Rural Erie County Domestic Violence Task Force. The Task Force formed in 2015 and continues to serve as rural Erie County’s coordinated community response to domestic violence. The task force played a key role in helping Safe Journey secure a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women which was instrumental in the creation of PurpleOne.
PurpleOne has trained more than 1000 individuals in Erie County and approved nearly 100 Safe Places. Research by the Penn State Behrend’s Susan Hirt Hagen Center on Community Outreach, Research, and Evaluation has deemed the PurpleOne training to be evidence-based.
The program has also earned national recognition. DomesticShelters.org and Theresa’s Fund selected PurpleOne as a 2021 Purple Ribbon Award gold medalist for Outstanding Awareness Campaign in the $500,001-$2M budget category. In 2023, PurpleOne founder and Safe Journey Executive Director Lori Palisin was selected as a Purple Ribbon Award winner as Shelter Executive of the Year.
The future of PurpleOne relies on continued community support. That is where you come in. Your willingness to support survivors can help ensure PurpleOne continues to change the culture of fear, silence, and misinformation that surrounds domestic violence. Together, we can create communities united against domestic violence.
