Belleville’s annual Take Back the Night rally, march and vigil is Thursday evening.
Take Back the Night is a global movement to end sexual, relationship, and domestic violence in all forms.
Organizing Committee member Natalie O’Toole of Three Oaks Foundation says the event begins with a rally at 6 p.m. at Market Square where survivors will share their stories.
“Our theme this year is to ‘shatter the silence to end sexual violence.’ So the event allows us as a community to build towards a culture of consent, nurturance, empowerment and solidarity. So it’s to bring attention to rape culture, to victim blaming, to make it clear that sexual violence is never the victim’s fault.”
The march will leave Market Square and make its way around the downtown, finishing back at the square and will be followed by the vigil.
The Take Back the Night Committee is represented by the Community Advocacy & Legal Centre, Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Response Program, Hastings and Prince Edward Occasional Teachers Local, Trenton Military Family Resource Centre, Mohawk Family Services, Red Cedars Shelter, Sexual Assault Centre for Quinte and District, Three Oaks Foundation, and Victim Services HPELA.
