ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Law enforcement and volunteers paired up for Harbor House’s “It Takes Courage” event on Saturday.
During the event, law enforcement officers from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and Orlando Police Department were paired with teams of volunteers to pass out door-hangers with critical information about domestic violence resources.
“It’s all about awareness, so the more we can spread that, then the better it is for everyone,” said volunteer Andrea Halperin.
Volunteers like Halperin spent their Saturday alongside law enforcement raising awareness surrounding domestic violence and where people can find help.
“We’re trying to prevent something from happening as opposed to always being reactive to these kinds of calls so this is very important to get the word out to people, neighbors stuff like that who may be afraid to call but just to let us know, to get ahead of the problem,” said Orlando police Detective Justin Stone.
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Saturday’s event kicked off at the Mall at Millennia before volunteers and law enforcement split up. Harbor House of Central Florida Grants Manager Laura Lucy said that each year after this event, they see an increase of calls.
“Every year after ‘It Takes Courage,’ we have about a 10% increase in calls the week following,” Lucy said. “It’s definitely getting the word out there.”
Orange-Osceola State Attorney Andrew Bain and Orange County Sheriff John Mina were also at Saturday’s event. They said prevention is an important part of keeping our communities safe.
“Every time a domestic violence incident occurs, the likelihood of a homicide occurring later on or in that incident dramatically increases,” Bain said.
Mina said he believes events like this save lives.
“That’s why we do these door-hanger events is because we want neighbors to call us and so maybe we can prevent the next domestic violence incident and hopefully we’ll prevent the next domestic violence homicide,” Mina said.
For more information on domestic violence resources from Harbor House, click here.
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