To me, love means…

Written by The SAFE Alliance

Last October, in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, SAFE kicked off a new campaign to focus on positive and healthy behaviors in relationships: To Me, LOVE Means…

This October, we’d like to revisit what love means to all of us. We are encouraging our community to think about what it means when relationships are respectful, healthy, and free from abuse. We want to start a conversation by sharing what love means in our lives.

How you can participate

These are just a few messages we’ve received. Throughout DVAM and beyond, we invite you to describe what love means to you and share your responses with us on social media.

Just use the hashtag #lovemeans and tag @SAFEatx on Twitter, @SAFEatx on Facebook, and @safe_atx on Instagram.

You can fill out a To Me, LOVE Means… card by printing out the images below, by downloading the images and editing them on your computer or mobile phone, or by picking up a postcard from our SAFE Community Education team.

Contact them at communityed@safeaustin.org for postcards and other materials. English and Spanish versions of the card are available below.

Just right click either image (long press on mobile) and select “Open image in new tab” or “Save image as…” to access the files.

Why we need to show what LOVE means

Over their lifetimes, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will experience severe physical violence at the hands of an intimate partner. Health problems associated with domestic violence include bladder and kidney infections, gynecological disorders, depression, and symptoms of PTSD, just to name a few.

We need to spread the word — people we care about are experiencing relationship violence, often in silence. We need to spread the word that it is unacceptable.

We share this information to hopefully break that silence and start a conversation about what it will take to heal our community and prevent future violence.

Let’s share our stories of love, and our vision for connection.

To find more ways to get involved in domestic violence prevention, visit safeaustin.org/get-involved.