Red high heels will hit the pavement in downtown Greensburg next week as the community gathers for the Blackburn Center’s 14th annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes.
The event, slated for April 26, is part of an international movement launched in 2001 that raises awareness of gender-based violence. Though footwear of any kind is acceptable, male walkers in particular are encouraged to wear high heels as a symbol of support for women — who are most commonly impacted by sexual assault and domestic violence, said Blackburn Center Executive Director Renee Reitz.
“It’s a way to start the conversation,” Reitz said.
What to expect
Starting from St. Clair Park, participants will walk a mile along Maple Avenue before returning to the park for speakers, activities and refreshments. Check-in for the event starts at 9 a.m., and the walk will begin at 10 a.m.
Fearless Advocacy of Male Engagement, a local group of male college students, will speak onstage. Attendees and facilitators of the Blackburn Center’s Coaching Boys Into Men program — which invites male athletes to discuss topics such as consent, respect and dating violence — also will be present.
Westmoreland County Community College’s social work and art clubs are pitching in through a demonstration based on the “stone soup” fable.
In the folktale, hungry travelers arrive in a village and claim to be making soup from a stone. Intrigued villagers contribute ingredients to enhance the soup, teaching a lesson about giving and working together.
Paying tribute to the fable, attendees can write messages on a stone — detailing their stories with gender-based violence or words of encouragement to a survivor. All of the stones will be tossed into a large pot, social work club board member Kayte Hughes said.
“This is something where — no matter who you are, no matter what you believe in — you can find friends, you can find allies,” said Hughes, who has organized the demonstration with art club President Oliver Rominski.
“You can find people in your corner that all want the same thing. We want to raise awareness for this,” she said. “We want to help people that have suffered with this, and we want to make sure future people don’t have to deal with this, as much as we can.”
Greensburg Salem Middle School students made artwork for the event, including pairs of shoes made of cardboard. One of the district’s high school students designed a logo for the event, which will be featured on T-shirts attendees can purchase for $5.
Education, advocacy are focal point of walk
But the most important part of the event, Reitz said, is educating attendees on the impact and prevention of gender-based violence.
More than 12 million people nationwide are directly impacted by rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner each year, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Nearly 29% of U.S. women — compared with 10% of men — have experienced rape, physical violence or stalking by a partner and reported it having an impact on their functioning, according to the hotline.
Apart from domestic violence fatalities recorded in the court system, state-specific data is hard to come by, said Kristin Malone-Bodair, the Blackburn Center’s education and outreach program manager.
Instances of sexual assault and domestic violence often go unreported, she said.
“It’s difficult to leave a relationship,” she said. “There’s a lot of challenges — maybe financial, due to children, cultural, spiritual — that people don’t leave their partner.”
Learning about local gender-based violence resources — such as the Blackburn Center — is one of the biggest ways people can combat gender-based violence in their communities, Reitz said.
“It’s really having allies. That’s where I think this event really comes into place,” she said. “Bringing in, having men as allies is really what we need. We need them to stand up, because we have a voice and we can only do so much.”
Last year’s walk drew nearly 800 people to Maple Avenue, Reitz said. Blackburn Center aims to gather 800 to 1,000 walkers this year.
“The participants have been there,” she said. “The community has shown up each year, and (the event) continues to grow.”