Ithaca College senior Libby Corlett knows firsthand the pain, agony and confusion that friends and families feel when someone is killed by their partner.
Two friends that she grew up with were killed by their boyfriends in college. When Corlett heard that Ithaca College was starting a chapter of One Love, she knew instantly that it was a club she wanted to get involved in.
One Love is a national organization focused solely on educating people about relationship abuse and intimate partner violence. Corlett is now the communications coordinator for IC One Love and one of five people on the club’s executive board.
“There are more elements to intimate partner violence than physical, which is what everyone is aware of,” Corlett said. “I think a college campus is a good place to start that education because it’s where a lot of people get into their first serious relationship and really turn into an adult.”
Escalation Workshops
One in three women and one in four men in the United States have experienced intimate partner violence, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The One Love foundation aims to change the statistics.
The IC One Love club is a part of the national One Love organization, which was founded in honor of Yeardley Love. Love was a lacrosse player at the University of Virginia when she was beaten to death by her boyfriend in 2010.
The Ithaca College department of intercollegiate athletics began administering escalation workshops to its twenty-seven varsity teams two years ago. An escalation workshop is a film-based discussion that exposes people to the warning signs of relationship abuse.
Ithaca senior Zoe Vadney was a member of the women’s swimming and diving team when she participated in one of those workshops. As a public and community health major, she wanted to find a way to share the lessons she learned in the workshop with others.
She reached out to Michelle Manning, the former Associate Director of Athletics for Finance and Administration and Senior Woman Administrator at Ithaca College, about creating a club on campus.
“I saw that this is something that affects everyone so I wanted to bring these resources and these tools to the greater part of campus,” Vadney said.
They have now done more than 30 workshops, educating about one-sixth of the campus.
“I think the club is important because the escalation workshop helps people see the smaller signs of an unhealthy relationships, whether that be emotional, verbal or sexual,” Corlett said.
IC Better Love and Yards for Yeardley
Yards for Yeardley is a community awareness event where individuals from across the country rally to honor Love and other victims of relationship abuse.
The 22-day challenge, which represents the 22 years that Love was alive, encourages people to walk, run or swim as much as they can during that time frame. Members of the Ithaca College community participated in this initiative, forming groups of four and compiling their yardage together.
They all got together Oct. 3rd in Emerson Suites for the IC Better Love event, a celebration event to commence Yards for Yeardley. The goal of the event, which was also the kickoff to domestic violence awareness month, was to unify the campus and spread awareness.
The club plans on administrating more escalation workshops throughout the year, with a goal of educating as many people as possible.
“I think it’s a really important message that we don’t talk about enough,” said Kyle Davis, an escalation workshop facilitator. “Bringing people in and having events like this really sheds lights on something that is really important but people don’t talk about enough.”
