By RORY MOORE
Tiger Media Network
Fort Hays State University’s Social Work Club placed its Fence of Voices in the Quad on Wednesday to encourage students to tie ribbons in honor of domestic violence victims for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The club also featured resources provided by Jana’s Campaign and Options Domestic & Sexual Violence Services for students to find help for themselves or others.
The Social Work Club offering solutions from Jana’s Campaign and Options Domestic & Sexual Violence Services. 
The FHSU Social Work Club set up a fence in the Quad to encourage students to tie ribbons for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. 
Maycie Holdeman ties on a ribbon. 
Jannie Brooks attaches her ribbon to the fence. 
Kali Leiker chats with friends while tying. 
Ashlyn Hammerschmidt and Grace McCord run the table. 
McCord explains the Social Work Club’s mission. 
The colors of ribbons representing victims of different crimes.
Joanna Sanchez, president of the Social Work Club, organized the event with her clubmates to help victims speak up and end the stigmatization they receive.
“Each ribbon has a meaning,” she said. “White stands for ally, green stands for stalking, teal stands for sexual assault, and purple stands for domestic violence. We’re partnering with Jana’s Campaign and Options by providing resources for students. We’re basically trying to show the amount of survivors and victims we’ve had here on campus, especially those who are allies for this project.”
Victims of these crimes rarely come forward or hesitate to speak up.
“Most of the time, people don’t like the stigma,” Sanchez said. “They don’t like being recognized as a victim. We prefer to call them survivors instead, and that’s the whole point of this fence, just so people can see, ‘It’s not just you! You’re not alone, and we’re here to stand up for you.’”
Sanchez is confident that the Fence of Voices and the collaborative work her club has done will have an impact on Fort Hays.
“We have both agencies who have been able to partner with us for the past few events,” she said. “We have another workshop coming up in November, and we’ve had students on our Instagram reach out and see how they can participate on our board. We don’t actually have a board right now, but I’ve seen [a] direct impact on students crying at the events or basically being happy and enjoying it as we’re going.”
If you of someone you know if experiencing domestic or sexual violence, dial 911 or seek help at https://www.janascampaign.org/, or https://help4abuse.org/.