Lumina Alliance Launches Community Awareness Campaign on Stalking
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY — January 2024 marks the twentieth annual National Stalking Awareness Month, an annual call to action to recognize and respond to this traumatic and dangerous crime. Stalking impacts nearly 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men in the United States but too often goes unrecognized and unaddressed.1 It takes all of us – advocates, legal representatives, victims/survivors and their friends and family, and YOU – to recognize and respond to stalking. This month, Lumina Alliance invites you to join our efforts to “KNOW IT. NAME IT. STOP IT.” – this year’s Stalking Awareness Month theme, and help raise awareness about stalking on the Day of Action on January 18th.
Stalking is a dangerous and devastating crime in its own right and often intersects with physical and sexual violence.2 Stalking triples the risk of intimate partner homicide, and 1 in 5 stalkers use weapons to threaten or harm victims.3 Survivors often suffer anxiety, social dysfunction, and severe depression as a result of their victimization, and many lose time from work and/or relocate.4,5
Stalking can impact every aspect of a survivor’s life, yet many underestimate its danger and urgency. The vast majority of victims tell friends or family about their situation first; how we respond influences whether they seek further help.
Stalking is defined as a pattern of behavior directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear or emotional distress. As fear is highly personal, so is stalking; stalkers often engage in behaviors that seem benign to outsiders but are terrifying in context.
For example, many people would welcome an unexpected flower delivery, but when a victim has quietly relocated to escape a stalker, that flower delivery can be a terrifying and threatening message that the offender has found them. Most stalkers target people that they know, and the majority of stalkers are partners or acquaintances who often have intimate knowledge about the victim’s vulnerabilities and fears.6
Most stalkers use technology and in-person tactics to watch, contact, threaten, sabotage, and/or otherwise frighten their victims.7 Common stalking tactics include unwanted calls/texts/emails/messages, showing up uninvited, spreading rumors, and being followed and watched.
“KNOW IT. NAME IT. STOP IT.” is a call to action for everyone in San Luis Obispo County and across the country. “We all have a role to play in identifying stalking, intervening when necessary, and supporting victims and survivors,” said Jane Pomeroy, Chief Communications Officer. Lumina Alliance is calling on SLO County to join efforts to raise awareness around stalking this month – learn how to get involved with the Day of Action of January 18th at www.StalkingAwareness.org
ABOUT LUMINA ALLIANCE — Lumina Alliance is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization created by the merging of RISE and Stand Strong in July 2021. Their mission is to empower those impacted by sexual and intimate partner violence through innovative advocacy, healing, and prevention programs. Services include 24/7 crisis and information line, case management, accompaniment and advocacy, emergency shelters, transitional housing, individual and group therapy, and robust prevention education. For more information, please visit www.LuminaAlliance.org